Against the World
by Yosakoi
Summary: You stand no chance against me, young demigods. My sons will crush you, be it in Athens or New York or somewhere in between. And you will sacrifice everything: your freedom, your love, your lives. Be prepared. / AU after "Blood of Olympus" will be published.
1. Chapter 1: Reyna

**Against the world**

_Beta read by monstrouscrow__. Spell-check by LadyofSomething. _Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize belongs to me. All credit goes to R. Riordan.

**Chapter 1: Reyna**

_So humans really can get used to absolutely anything,_ I thought after not losing my balance after shadow travelling; it was the first time I hadn't since Epirus.

More than once during my journey with Nico and the Athena Parthenos, I'd cursed my inability to remain on my feet. It had cost me several scars and three fingers of my left hand. Of course, I knew that, rationally speaking, three missing fingers were a small price to pay for my triumphs over countless monsters I had slain. And yes, battle wounds were supposed to be a soldier's decorations. Still, I tried to avoid looking at the shriveled stumps as much as possible.

_Enough with the self-pity, Reyna_, I thought sharply, calling myself to order. I had more important things to do than feel sorry for myself, for example; finding out where the hell we'd landed this time and whether or not anything was trying to kill us.

The area looked disturbingly peaceful, I noted as I observed our surroundings. We were standing in the middle of a sort of sandy circle enclosed by trees and brushwood. Nico was still securely strapped to my back and the Athena Parthenos lay on its side next to us. _Good so far._ I could smell the strong scent of the sea nearby, which could only mean that we were, once again, stranded on an island or somewhere near the coast. I felt my heart beat slightly faster at that realization: the smell, the vegetation… it felt like North America.

"Reyna…"

I could barely hear Nico's warning, even though his mouth was just inches away from my left ear. His brittle voice worried me, but we didn't have the time to eat ambrosia at the moment. I would take care of him... _after_ I finished vaporizing the two empousai running towards us.

"Oh! Yummy, yummy demigods!" the taller—and faster—empousa exclaimed, her long tongue flicking over chapped lips.

Her saliva flew left and right as she jumped over several boulders. She was fast, fast enough that I was able to hear her tattered dress rip as she sprinted the last hundred yards or so. At a closer angle, the dress was green with tiny purple flowers and not long enough to cover either of her hideous legs. I tried not to focus too much on the enormous sweat stains under the empousa's armpits, but the smell was hard to ignore. An enormous, smoldering sombrero covered her flaming hair. I might be able to pull it down to cover her eyes in order to distract her.

The second empousa was smaller and seemed almost bored as she strolled up behind the first. I needed only a quick glance to understand the reason for her disinterest: her long, deep-cut blouse and flowing skirt (both in a nauseating shade of pink) were soaked in fresh blood, presumably the blood of some unfortunate man who'd recently satisfied her 'hunger'. Involuntarily, I shivered.

Worse, this second empousa was apparently very skilled with the Mist. Even though I knew full well that she was a monster approaching us, her lower half flickered between the bronze leg and donkey hoof to stunning legs and dainty feet clad in black stilettos. I tried to concentrate, to see her true form, but somehow she managed to make the flames on her head appear as a luxurious red mane. The way her wide hips swayed was distracting. I'd overcome many monsters since leaving Circe's island, many much more lethal than these empousai, but the way they could manipulate the Mist unnerved me.

_Well, offense is the best defense_, I thought and shouted, "I am Reyna, daughter of Bellona, praetor of the Roman legion! Turn around and go back to whence you came!"

It was worth a shot and maybe, just maybe, the monsters would really leave us alone.

Or maybe not.

The taller empousa just gave a shrill laugh and moved even closer. "You're funny, daughter of Bellona. I'll eat you after your delicious companion. You can be my dessert!"

_Oh, well._

Sending a silent prayer to my mom, I charged. The first jab of my javelin was good but not good enough, missing the advancing empousa by half an inch.

"Is that all you've got? How pathetic!" the empousa sneered, screaming with laughter as she began to circle. "Not much meat on the boy, more's the pity. But he'll still be tasty. I really love Underworld meat, it's so rare—it has that special ghostly flavor!"

I stepped to the side and charged again, but missed by quite a bit.

"Oh, honey. You're just not your mum's favorite child, huh?" she taunted, voice dripping with false sympathy.

I clenched my teeth so hard it hurt. Yes, I had learned to use Nico's additional weight on my back to add momentum to my attack, but it still slowed me down. Fortunately for us, the other empousa seemed to be disinterested in what her companion was doing, content to observe from a distance.

Suddenly, the tall empousa feinted left but moved right. I attempted a desperate third stab, but lost my balance, stumbling. My heart stopped at a ripping sound as the monster tore through the rope securing Nico to my back. I managed to force her back a few steps with my Imperial gold dagger, keeping her at a distance as Nico fell to the ground with a loud _thump_.

At the back of my mind, I registered his pained groan, but just then I had to concentrate on my opponent. Or rather, my opponents, I corrected myself as I saw the smaller empousa now moving to join the first.

Her eyes glowed cruelly as she hissed at me in disdain. "You are a disgrace, child of Bellona. Even my sister will defeat you. Praetor or no, a demigod that loses her fingers deserves no respect from us."

Then they attacked in earnest.

I'd spent many hours practicing two-on-one combat scenarios, but I still found it difficult to both concentrate on the monsters and make sure that Nico, on the ground at my feet, was out of reach. While I thrust my javelin towards the smaller and seemingly more dangerous empousa, her taller companion attacked from behind and tried to rake her talons through my back as I just barely managed to duck.

The smaller empousa laughed grimly. "If you surrender, we will kill you quickly. That's the most honorable death you can hope for anyway."

"Oh yes! Crippled but yummy demigod!" the other one giggled as she tried to slice open my side.

She was careless, and I saw the opening I needed.

"A cripple that's gonna send you back to Tartarus where you belong!" I hissed and thrust my spear forward.

The Imperial gold glittered in the afternoon sun and hit the empousa square in the chest with a satisfying _oomph._

"NOO!" the monster shrieked as she quickly crumbled to dust. "My sisters will…"

The familiar rush of victory surged through me but I didn't have time to enjoy it because just then Nico cried out in pain.

Shock made me feel as though I was moving in slow motion as I turned.

Just for a split second, I had lost sight of the other empousa, but it had been enough time for the monster to bury her fangs in his throat.

_Not Nico!_ I screamed inside my head and slashed down at the monster crouching at my feet. But she was too quick and sprang backwards, evading the strike.

"You kill my sister, I kill your friend. It's as simple as that," she said matter-of-factly.

Adrenaline rushed through my body as I attacked. I felt like a machine, slicing at her repeatedly in movements so fast they blurred. But the empousa was even quicker. I prayed that Nico was still alive; that my mom would help me vaporize the monster... but the empousa just kept dodging my attacks like it was a warm-up session.

"You don't know me, daughter of Bellona. I am not just another empousa. I am Empousa, first daughter of Hecate and Mormo. For centuries, I was confined to the deepest depths of Tartarus until Gaia set me on a mission to destroy all demigods. I prefer male victims, but I will gladly rip you to pieces. Prepare to die, unworthy daughter of Bell—" she shouted but was cut short.

Somehow, a rift in the ground had appeared beneath her feet. She stumbled and flailed her arms wildly, cursing as she tried to keep her balance.

It was an obvious opportunity, and I seized it. I buried my weapon in her skull, and with a small explosion a whirlwind of monster dust momentarily blinded me.

Then, finally, I ran to Nico.

He was unconscious. His face, totally devoid of color, stood in stark contrast to the crimson blood that pulsed sluggishly out of the fang wounds in his throat.

I cursed under my breath as I struggled to open the vial of nectar with my remaining fingers.

_A soldier focuses on the task ahead. A soldier focuses on the task ahead,_ I thought furiously, repeating one of the many mantras I had been taught in my earlier years in Camp Jupiter.

Finally, the tiny stopper gave way and I poured nectar on the wounds. For a moment, I feared I was too late, but slowly, ever so slowly, the wounds closed.

"Nico," I addressed him, gently shaking his shoulders. "Talk to me, alright?"

No response.

Dread rushed through me as I shook him again—his lips had an unhealthy blue hue to them. Nico di Angelo had stopped breathing a while ago.


	2. Chapter 2: Nico

**Chapter 2: Nico**

The last thing I remembered was an empousa's glowing eyes and a searing pain, like burning blades buried in my throat, that left no room for anything else. I knew I was in mortal danger—just one of the many perks of being Hades' kid—and that I should probably fight against the blackness threatening to overtake me. But really, there's only so much you can do with a limited supply of life energy and the blood loss was steadily depleting my last reserves. So, naturally, my mind short-circuited.

I felt like I was falling, deeper and deeper. I could see blurred impressions, bleary images of happier times.

_The soothing voice of my mother as she sang my favorite lullaby…_

_The first Mythomagic card set I'd ever owned (including the shiny Necromancy Card that had been an invaluable asset in my deck ever since)…_

_My first Happy Meal with French fries that had tasted like nothing I'd ever eaten before and had come with a tiny, black toy car…_

_Bianca kissing my forehead, telling me that we would make it after we were rescued from Dr. Thorn…_

_Mrs. O'Leary excitedly wagging her tail as she first laid eyes on me..._

If this was death, then so what? I couldn't remember ever being this happy.

I took a deep breath, and just like that, snapshots of my journey with Reyna and Big Miss Know-It-All replaced Bianca's laughter and the feeling of my mother's comforting hand on my shoulder.

_The cries of two dying dracanae that Reyna had killed on our second or third day…_

_The salty smell of abnormally high waves crashing on an island…_

_The burning bite of a telekhine that had surprised Reyna and me right after shadow-traveling five days ago searing through my thigh…_

_If I'm dying, than at least let me die with my good memories,_ I begged any god or goddess who would listen.

Instead, the whirlwind of impressions slowed down and I was forced to relive my memories of my fifth night with Reyna; we'd been stranded on a tiny island somewhere in the Great Atlantic.

I knew what was to come, but I couldn't prevent the rising terror when I witnessed a Stymphalian bird rip the fingers from Reyna's hand once again. I had seen demigods dying from much more gruesome injuries; hell, I had crossed the river Acheron and met Akhlys, the goddess of misery herself! But Reyna's scream had shaken me to the core. I had felt so very helpless. I hadn't been able to do anything to prevent it, when Reyna risked her life every day protecting me, more often than not, multiple times each day.

I knew, of course, that we shared the mission to bring the Athena Parthenos back to Camp Half-Blood, and that she would see it as her duty to protect me. But she had done quite a bit more than simply ensure my survival. She was the only person in existence that had encouraged and thanked me and confided in me, Bianca and Hazel notwithstanding. Children of Hades did not have friends by definition, but she was pretty much the closest thing to one I'd ever had or probably would have.

And that was why I'd smashed the Stymphalian bird's skull myself and then caused a volcanic eruption that had destroyed the whole island. Which hadn't been… entirely voluntary, but then again it hadn't been the first time that my anger had heightened my power, either. Still, it had been an incredible epiphany when I realized that I could not only force the soil to release the dead, but I could even force rifts to appear anywhere—which was a great ability to have in fights against most monsters. Yet unfortunately, it seemed like I was currently in the process of dying and so would miss out on the future opportunities to further develop my ability. Pity.

I took another deep breath, lungs burning, and the next sequence started. This time I found myself back on board the luxurious cruise ship where I'd shadow travelled. Reyna and I had stayed there slightly longer than necessary, just because the ship had been heading west anyway and we had both needed the rest. Plus, there had been food (meh), several first aid kits (good for Reyna's hand) and real beds (jackpot!). The mortals were friendly, but had insisted on displaying the Athena Parthenos next to the buffet tables. Reyna'd assumed that the Mist made it appear to be an ice statue. I had found its gaze disturbing when we had to eat in its vicinity, but the mortals were impressed and took lots of photos of it. Mortals were strange that way.

The cruise ship's name had been _Gentle Giant_. With the presence of two demigods and a magic statue, it was no wonder that passengers were soon complaining about false advertisement. Not that we encountered any real giants, but the sea had many other monsters to offer. In the scene I was revisiting, we had been on board for no longer than two minutes and were already facing down a giant decapus.

As it had turned out, a decapus looked just like a regular octopus, just with two extra tentacles that squirted acid instead of regular ink. And it came in XXL, of course. I had been drained after shadow-traveling several hundred miles, not that Reyna needed my help anyway. She had thrown fruit kebabs, oranges and any other edibles she had found close to hand, the monster devouring everything. And then, with ingenuity worthy of a true Greek, she'd hidden her Imperial gold dagger in a banana, causing severe monster indigestion and a spectacular explosion of yellowish monster-dust and ink. Afterwards, I'd helped her wash the ink out of her hair.

As the sequence faded out, a string of different blurred images appeared in front of me. And then, the familiar voice of my not-very-beloved stepmother Persephone spoke. Just one word, but a command nonetheless: "Remember."

She might as well have said, "Die a very painful death, bastard child," I thought as I fell, literally sucked into the next image. This was probably what a stretching rack felt like. Expect that it was my mind being ripped apart and not my mortal body.

See, the great thing about a mortal body is that it can only tolerate so much pain before it gives up and you black out or die. When a jealous flower goddess decides to mentally torture you, though, you have to endure it. And gods can keep going on and on and on. That's why any sensible demigod fears them.

Luckily for me, the wormhole torture trip did stop (eventually) and, as the pain subsided, I opened my eyes. Well, it felt like I was opening my eyes, at least; hard to tell given the fact that I was trapped inside my own mind. And wasn't I dying?

It was all very confusing, and it got even more confusing as I realized that now I was inside the luxurious cabin I'd shared with Reyna on the _Gentle Giant_. But this time, I wasn't just a spectator as I had before. This time, I was _there_, seeing what I had seen then, feeling what I felt then.

I looked up at the creak of a door.

The small door leading to the bathroom swung open and Reyna stepped out, a towel wrapped around her hair, another around her shoulders and thighs.

"Sorry, that took longer than I planned. But, you know, running water..." She shrugged apologetically. "We'd better hurry or we'll miss breakfast, and you have to eat."

Praise the gods that Reyna wasn't like one of the daughters of Aphrodite—Piper excluded—that spent half an hour minimum in the mornings dressing up for the day. No, Reyna was as efficient getting dressed as she was crushing monsters.

Less than five minutes later, we sat down at one of the dozen breakfast tables on deck. Reyna devoured a cheese omelet and two stacks of pancakes drowning in maple syrup. I chose a bagel with salmon and cream cheese and mentally congratulated myself when I managed to finish it off. Eating mortal food was still hard after having relied solely on the pomegranate's seeds for so long, but I was getting better.

"Surely you're not finished!" Reyna was appalled as I shifted the sterling silver cutlery to the side. "It's no wonder you're so knackered after shadow traveling. Here, have my tuna sandwich," she offered.

"I already told you that it's nothing physical. Afterwards, I'm mentally exhausted and no amount of food will change that," I said with a sigh.

"If you won't take care of yourself, I will. Eat, boy!" Reyna commanded in a tone that I was sure worked on her Roman marionettes. It was the sort of tone I found really annoying and couldn't tolerate.

"Reyna, I am not one of your soldiers to command…" I warned her, squashing a grape under my palm.

Without warning, the whole cruise ship trembled and abruptly changed course.

"Whoa, easy there, Nico. I'm sorry, okay?" Reyna said.

"I'm not doing anything," I replied. "I think—"

Then we both heard it: a beautiful song, a sequence of clear notes that wavered through the air, creeping into my ears and permeating my brain.

_Percy's voice, _I recognized. Percy, inviting me to come closer. My feet moved of their own accord towards the ship's nose, Reyna right beside me.

"It sounds like an angel singing," she said, gazing wide-eyed into the distance, and I silently agreed with her. I couldn't remember ever hearing Percy sing, but I really liked his talking voice. Even when things didn't go as planned, he managed to sound happy-go-lucky and content.

A loud scream startled me as a woman failed to hold back her husband, who jumped over the railing into the sea below. _Splash, splash, splash!_ Three more men followed, and my Underworld senses told me that they hadn't survived the impact.

"They'll probably drown," Reyna said with a frown. "But we can't take care of them now. Let's get closer to the angel."

I stared at her. Reyna never spoke lightly of the deaths of mortals. On the contrary, she had accused me more than once of being too indifferent regarding the fate of 'innocent bystanders.' _That was definitely strange._

But I really couldn't think straight. Percy's voice was whispering to me, promising that he wanted to be with me, that he didn't care that we were both male, that it was okay. That he desired me. That his greatest wish was to wake up next to me in the morning and hold me, even through my nightmares of Tartarus. He was saying... he was saying that he loved me. He said it over and over again, assuring me that everything would be okay if I could just reach him.

It was everything, everything I wanted.

My heart clenched. I wanted to believe the voice singing to me with every fiber of my being, but a little voice inside my head told me that children of Hades never got what they wanted and that I shouldn't trust my ears. And Reyna was acting suspiciously... Why would she compare Percy's voice to an angel's? Well, it did sound heavenly, but… angels weren't part of Greek mythology, were they?

It hit me as a second wave of passengers jumped gladly to their death, and as the spell broke the song seemed to turn to manic laughter in my ears.

"Reyna, it's a siren! Don't let it fool you!" I yelled in her ear.

Reyna looked at me out of dazed eyes and shook her head, eyes smiling patronizingly at me like I was mentally challenged, just another idiotic kid.

I grabbed her by her shirt, holding her back.

"Can't you see? It's one of the few monsters that affects both demigods and mortals! It's promising you what you want the most, no matter how unrealistic it is, just to lure you into its claws!"

She glared at me, and suddenly I wondered if I shouldn't have drawn my sword before trying to stop her.

"You know nothing, son of Hades! If you stop me from reaching my angel, I will end you," she snarled.

Well, wasn't she charming?

"So, mighty daughter of Bellona, what does your angel promise you? A happy ending with your sister, your father and your godly super-mom, all playing a friendly rugby match?" I asked.

"There's Jason as well," Reyna said defiantly.

Jason, of course. The perfect opening.

"Ah, the perfect, oh-_sooo_-handsome son of Jupiter! Tell me, how likely is it that he would chose you when he's so in love with Piper? The siren's luring you to your death and you don't even realize it. Wake up, Reyna!"

"You are bitter, son of Hades," Reyna scoffed, "The sirens never leave the Sea of Monsters."

I almost screamed in frustration. Apparently Reyna hadn't gotten the memo that said that since Gaia was controlling the doors of death, monsters could be anywhere and everywhere. But...maybe there was a simpler solution.

"Cover your ears, then, if you don't believe me," I challenged her.

She just stared at me like I had gone insane.

"I choose to believe you, because you have helped me on this quest. But if this is a trick, I will make sure you regret it," Reyna growled, but she still lifted her hands, pressing them firmly over her ears.

The change was almost immediate. Reyna's eyes lit up like a veil had been lifted and she was horror-stricken at the sight of yet more people diving over the railing to the sea below. When she dropped her hands, the horror in her eyes turned to anger.

"We have to redirect this ship now, or half the passengers will be fish food," she said grimly. I nodded, feeling satisfied. I really liked it when my ideas worked.

"I think the navigation bridge is that way." She pointed north, and we starting running. Fast.

"Do you have a plan?" I gasped as we took the narrow stairway up to the bridge.

"We have to scare the passengers away from the railings. The captain and crew won't just give us the wheel, either. Even though I _hate_ them, our best chance is to become pirates," she said.

We took the last few steps and burst through a (surprisingly) unsecured door right into the command center, finding three men and three women, all with the same longing gaze, obviously bewitched by the siren's song.

"Hey, kids," one of the severe-looking men in uniform called, "Access to unauthorized personnel is forbidden. Go back down!"

I glanced around, ignoring the mortal for a moment. My ADHD and countless battle situations told me that even outnumbered one to three, the mortals were absolutely no match for us.

Reyna went into I-am-praetor-obey-me mode.

"You don't understand, sir. We're hijacking this ship. On your knees, now!" she commanded, pointing her spear at the crewmembers.

I didn't know what the mortals saw as I drew my Stygian blade, but our weapons had the desired effect. The two younger women went down immediately and begged us not to kill them, sobbing out that they had kids and husbands at home. The men were slower to follow, but they as well had fear in their eyes.

_Odd_, I thought. The song of a siren was supposed to be hard to withstand, even for a mortal. But it seemed as though a high-risk-situation did the trick regardless.

"You think you can just march in and hijack a ship with 1,200 passengers on board?" the oldest woman (and only mortal still standing) asked. "You terrorists might kill me but I won't surrender without a fight!"

Well, 'fight' wasn't the word I would have used, but she had good aim as she flung coffee mugs, a telescope and a butter knife. It wasn't anything our demigod reflexes couldn't handle. I scoffed, but Reyna seemed impressed.

"Captain, I admire your determination, so I will offer you a deal. You will use the intercom and tell all your passengers to go back in their cabins and lock the doors from inside. Then we will discuss our conditions," she said.

The woman's lips stiffened. "Why would I negotiate with terrorists? For all I know you're using this ship for another 9/11!"

This was getting ridiculous.

"Of course, you will no longer control the course of the ship, but we promise not to kill anyone. That's all you get. Take it or leave it," I interjected, flashing her a deliberately creepy smile. I'm very good at those.

The woman quickly nodded her agreement.

"Good. That's settled, then," Reyna said approvingly. "Here's what you'll say…"

While Reyna instructed the captain, I turned to the other five crewmembers.

"You heard what your captain decided. Now go down and make sure that all passengers safely find their way to their cabins and lock them. I will know if you don't obey. Begone!" I said, with more drama than strictly necessary. But I had to counteract the effect of the siren's song, so whatever worked… right?

As the crew scurried down the stairs, I took the stirring wheel and turned it 180°. It was the best I could do. After all, I was no nautical expert, unlike…

_Percy._

The thought of never seeing him again made me feel sick to the stomach.


	3. Chapter 3: Reyna

**Chapter 3: Reyna**

Until now, I'd never thought that I would regret not paying more attention during the classes on battlefield first aid at Camp Jupiter.

For the umpteenth time I was mentally screaming, _Breathe, you idiot, BREATHE_!, at Nico, who lay on the ground, _not_ breathing. Basic resuscitation techniques, nectar poured down his throat, screaming, shaking, nothing was working.

_Stubborn fool. _I blinked back tears before forcing more air into his lungs. How was he not breathing when his heart was still beating? I couldn't have anyone else dying on my account. Not after the satyr had given his life to protect us.

"Nico, breathe, please," I begged him, "We need you. The Greeks do, even the Romans do!"

I forced another breath past his lips, getting desperate.

"Lord Apollo, great god of medicine, help me," I prayed, "Lord Aesculapius, great god of healing, whoever is listening. _Please_!"

I continued attempting resuscitation, even though my lungs were burning and my chances of reviving him became slimmer and slimmer. It was physically exhausting. Another thing they didn't tell you in first aid class.

"Come on, Nico. Come on!" I shouted, but there was no response.

Suddenly a repugnant scent hit my nostrils. _Rotten eggs?_ No. _Carrion?_

_Please, spare me another underworld monster, _I thought and looked around, gripping my javelin tightly.

But instead of, say, another empousa or a hydra, I saw only a star-shaped, five-petalled flower that reminded me of succulents I had seen in a greenhouse in New Rome. It was pretty, if you liked that sort of thing, but it was definitely the source of the stench. Keeping my breakfast down was suddenly a challenge.

I wondered...had the gods heard my prayer and sent this flower to help? And if it made me gag, would it trigger Nico's respiratory reflex?

_We'll just try it and see, shall we?,_ I thought to myself, picking the stinking flower and wafting it under Nico's nose.

"Nico, wake up, now!" I ordered him and, with a jolt, Nico's eyes opened wide.

Relief swept through me, making me feel light-headed even as Nico lost the contents of his stomach. At least he was conscious!

I tossed the plant several feet away, and immediately the air cleared. I patted Nico's back until he stopped heaving and gave him the rest of my water bottle to rinse his mouth.

"You had me worried there," I told him.

"Not…my intention," Nico mumbled feebly.

He used the last drops of the water to gargle and spit.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"Like Death warmed over," Nico replied, but sat up a little straighter, "Do we have any ambrosia left?"

I hesitated.

"Yes, we do. But I gave you a vial of nectar already, and I don't think you can manage anything else," I said.

"A whole vial?!" Nico croaked, his voice hoarse and shocked, "I could have burnt to ash!"

I scowled. It was always a mistake to expect gratitude from the ambassador of Pluto.

"I've been trying to revive you for seven minutes! For _seven minutes_. You. Were. Not. Breathing! What was I supposed to do?"

Nico slumped.

"Reyna, you don't understand. I'm grateful—you saved my life. Again. But I feel so drained that I can't even get up. I'm not exaggerating," he sighed.

"It's okay, just take a couple of minutes. You'll be all right, I know," I tried to cheer him up.

"Reyna, really," he said, and coughed before continuing. "It's not like before, after I shadow-traveled. I have a good grasp on my energy level. If I can't take any more nectar or ambrosia, I'll have to heal on my own. That'll take several days at least. I'm sorry, Reyna."

"But we're close, aren't we? We might not need to shadow travel at all. I'll just carry you," I suggested.

I had done it before, and Nico was such a lightweight it wouldn't even be all that hard. And maybe we could catch a train, truck, or ship heading towards Camp Half-Blood.

"Yes, we're close. Block Island. Near Corn Cove, to be exact."

"Block Island, really?" That meant Long Island was basically just around the corner. "Well done, Nico! I would have thought we were much further away."

Nico gave a half-smile, but grimaced in pain again. "I took a calculated risk. If not for those damned empousai, I would have been able to take us to camp with the next step."

He took another labored breath and continued, "But Reyna, even talking to you now is exhausting. I can't explain it, but I won't make it if I follow you. You have to go on your own."

"We're in this together. There might be another empousa somewhere, or some other monster. I will not leave you here!" I said.

But as the words left my mouth, I realized that when push came to shove I had no other choice. I was still praetor of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata, and I had sworn a sacred oath to protect it. Each day that passed could be the last of any of my legionnaires. I couldn't wait indefinitely for Nico's recovery; I would leave him behind if I had to.

"It's okay, Reyna, really," he said quietly, as if having read my thoughts, "There's a possibility… I won't make it. I always knew that. But maybe I can make a final trip home to heal. To my father's palace."

His father's palace in the Underworld—who in their right mind would consider that an adequate place to recover? And how would he get there? He had just said that another trip via shadow travel might prove fatal.

"You're mental!" I shouted, dismayed, "You're barely breathing and you want to shadow travel? You'll land in the Underworld, alright—on Judgment Pavilion!"

_The nerve of the boy!_ I really couldn't believe it.

Nico shook his head.

"I never said I'd try shadow traveling, did I?" he asked, "My father…he gave me one of his skull rings. Well, I kinda took it, but he's seen me with it and hasn't asked for it back, so…"

He took a wheezing breath.

"Nico, slow down, really," I scolded him, but he didn't listen to me.

_Typical._

"No time, Reyna, sorry," he said, "Anyway, this ring. It's supposed to be a one-way ticket to the throne room, or something. It might be too much for my system, but it's the best chance I have."

Nico looked at me pleadingly, as if waiting for my permission. No, I realized, he was asking for my blessing. I shivered involuntarily. Nico had promised to help me bring the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood, and we had been a team ever since leaving from Epirus. He had done everything in his power to ensure our success. But now, now he was asking me to release him from his promise to give him the only chance he could see to stay alive.

"Do you really think that it's your best chance?" I asked, and he nodded in reply.

I took a deep breath and said, "Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, I release you from your promise to bring the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood with me. If I succeed, my success will largely be thanks to your abilities and courage. You have done well. I will always remember your part in this quest. The Twelfth Legion Fulminata is indebted to you."

I didn't want to leave him behind, I really didn't! But we were at war, and he knew that. In vain, I fought to hold back the tears spilling from my eyes. And then—I threw my arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"I'll take the Athena Parthenos to your camp, and I'll make sure the rift in the gods' personalities is healed. And if we survive this, come to New Rome. I'll pay you back, Nico di Angelo."


	4. Chapter 4: Nico

**Chapter 4: Nico**

My father had an unhealthy relationship with his jewelry. How else could you explain that I had to _kiss _the ring to activate the throne room shortcut? At least Reyna hadn't witnessed the embarrassingly high number of tries it had taken me to get it to work. After her totally unnecessary farewell hug, she had spotted a truck and convinced the truck driver to take her—and her "surfboard"—to Long Island Harbor.

She had waved goodbye, and in that moment, I somehow knew that she would make it to camp without me. Call it intuition, gut feeling, whatever. With the same certainty, I knew that I needed to get back to the Underworld in order to heal.

I discovered by chance that the ring was activated by pressing my lips against it. And as I did, it felt as if it my entire body burst into flames. It might've literally burnt me, but I had closed my eyes and couldn't check. I wondered if I would really become a ghost king if I died now.

When I felt cold marble under my knees and hands, I realized to my amazement that I had made it home (more or less) alive.

I cried out in pain as I collapsed on the floor.

"Welcome back, son of Hades," one of my stepmother's wispy handmaidens greeted me, only to vanish into thin air as I tried to speak.

_Home cold home,_ I thought with just a hint of bitterness. I couldn't move. There was no one to ask for help. So I did the natural thing: I went to sleep.

Which for a demigod is about as restful as running the four hundred meter hurdles several times in a row.

I saw visions of Camp Half-Blood under attack. Monsters were trying to tear down the barrier that had proven a reliable shield in the past; here and there the invisible fabric tore under the assault of endless claws, beaks, and talons. I saw two Ares kids battling against a hydra that sprouted more heads the longer they tried to overcome it. A son of Demeter was throwing carrots at a hellhound, distracting him enough to allow a daughter of Nemesis to ram her sword down his throat, pulverizing it. In the same moment, however, a black bull ran towards her, skewering her from behind.

I hadn't really known the kid but her death seemed unfair. Or maybe it was the opposite. An eye for an eye, a life for a life—Nemesis' children knew that better than anyone else.

The raging bull was trampling two other demigods—until it came screeching to a halt, eating... Was that _hemp_ growing between its massive hoofs? At the edges of my vision I could see a female demigod waving her hands at the anaesthetizing plants, urging them to grow faster. Probably another daughter of Demeter. The plants were surprisingly effective. Monsters swayed and stumbled as the sweet scent filled their nostrils; some even killed their own kin, fighting over who could enjoy the delicacies first. Demigods were also affected, though to a lesser degree: they moved sluggishly and their gazes swam between confusion and clarity. Only the children of Demeter seemed to be immune to the narcotics, taking advantage of the situation in order to slay beast after beast.

Then the scene shifted and I was inside a camping tent apparently being used as a war council.

Octavian and his 'associates', Quintus and Cara, were standing around a narrow table, looking at a map of Camp Half-Blood and its surroundings. They all wore traditional Roman armor, but, for now, no weapons. Cara looked invigorated. She was rather young, maybe twelve or thirteen years old, but still Octavian's valued confidante. She had been born into a wealthy family whose pedigree supposedly traced all the way back to the Roman general Crassus. I had only talked to her once, and that had been one time too many. She'd made it quite clear that she would not converse with an ambassador of Pluto unless he showered her with precious jewels and other such riches. Quintus, a grandchild of Hermes, rather tall for his fifteen years, was a stark contrast, exhibiting all the symptoms of a severe lack of sleep and high stress levels: black rings under his bloodshot eyes, skin too pale and a slight tremor in his hands. Octavian looked as ridiculous as ever with his stuffed teddy bears hanging at his side.

"The monsters seem focused on the southwest border, but it's not like they coordinate their attacks," Quintus said, "Dakota has also seen several dozen sea monsters trying to pass the barrier in the north. The strawberry fields in the west have been turned into minefields. I wouldn't let even the fifth cohort cross them." He sighed, frustrated, and pushed several figurines around the map.

"Don't tell me what we shouldn't do. Tell me how we can crush the Greek menace once and for all!" Octavian ordered.

Even in New Rome, I had sometimes wondered if there might be a bit of Ares in his bloodline. His temper reminded me very much of Clarisse.

Quintus furrowed his brow in concentration, but before he could answer, Cara interrupted, "We'll attack from northeast, using the amphitheater to hide our supplies and the catapults. They'll be focused on the monsters and won't expect an attack from the rear."

"Good girl!" Octavian praised, as one would an over-excited pet, and the girl beamed with pride. It was pathetic.

Quintus nodded slightly.

"I think that might just work. We'll have to move slowly in order not to draw the attention of the monsters, though. If we start our preparations tomorrow morning, we can be ready to strike at about sunset. Or we could use another night's sleep and attack the morning afterwards. I'd recommend choosing the latter to diminish the number of casualties. The legion could use a short rest before really launching the attack. What shall I tell the centurions?" Quintus asked.

Octavian smirked, "Quintus, you would be a fine leader in times of peace. But we are at _war_! Tell the centurions to start preparations now. We'll attack at midday. The Greeks won't know what hit them!"

He then vanished through the tent's entrance, leaving only a trace of some flowery perfume behind.

_Hold on._ Since when did Octavian wear perfume? I squinted twice, ending the dream. It seemed like I was destined to forever be revived or woken up by the scent of flowers.

"Of course you are. It was I who send the carrion flower, after all," said a voice right beside my head.

I started and groaned in pain as I hit my head hard against the headboard.

Flowers. Persephone. Headboard. My room in the underworld.

Okay.

"I had Alecto pick you up and bring you here. Your 'no touching' rule doesn't apply to furies, does it?"

"You, what, why, here?" I asked rather eloquently.

Persephone sighed dramatically. "You're still healing, so I'll use baby words. You overtaxed yourself. You nearly died. Even though I helped, you know. I sent you a trigger scene, tripped the empousa and replanted the carrion flower. And I put some chamomile in your room. It won't last long down here but it'll help the healing process. I wanted to talk to you."

I still felt slightly disoriented; my head hurt, and I was so unbelievably tired.

"Please stop," I groaned. "You're not my real mum, and I need to sleep."

She scoffed. "You're such an insolent child. But have it your way then. Sleep!"

This time, I welcomed the blackness.


	5. Chapter 5: Percy

**Chapter 5: Percy**

You see, the thing about killing Gigantes is that you need both a demigod and a god or goddess to do the deed. And sadly, we were fresh out of any and all godly power.

"Percy, watch out!" Annabeth cried out as Otis threw a giant net at us like he was one of those Roman Retiarii, gladiators who fought with tridents and nets. Normally, I would have had no problem dodging it but I was kind of handicapped: I hadn't slept much in the last two days, and I had been wounded to the point that not even soaking in the sea had been able to heal my broken ribs completely. That's why I was a fraction of a second too slow and the net hit me in the head.

I should say that it wasn't just any net, but a weighted net, giant-style—with barbed wire and nylon stockings instead of just, you know, regular ropes. I saw stars as I stumbled and fell, losing the ground below me.

"You know, little demigod, you're getting annoying," Otis chided as he dangled me upside down before him. "There are only two days left to prepare for the great feast of her Ladyship, and I have not even begun to decorate the Panathinaiko!"

Which I'd like to point out wasn't quite true. The Panathinaiko in Athens, the oval stadium where the first modern Olympic Games were hosted in 1896 (Annabeth had mentioned it at least five times on our journey on the Argo II), was packed with props, monsters and wild animals in dozens of cages and… stuff. About a third of the fifty rows of marble steps were covered in flowers and flesh-eating plants, most of which I'd never seen before. There were paper garlands, balloons, and an enormous "Enjoy the end of the world, mom!" banner. On the far end, a tall torch burned.

"You demigods only think of yourselves and never of the show!" the giant exclaimed, shaking his long green hair angrily. "But never mind. Mom needs two demigods for the grand finale—I'll keep you until then. I'll make sure your deaths are spectacular!"

And on that happy note, he threw me over his shoulder and into a cage.

I heard my shoulder crack as I landed on metal bars on the dusty ground inside the cage and groaned in pain. You would think you'd get used to pain eventually, but the truth is you don't. Not ever. Too bad I hadn't taken another nice, long bath in the Styx before coming here.

"Percy, are you okay?" a voice quavered from beside me.

Ah, Hazel.

Yesterday, after a long day of fighting countless of opponents, the giant had surprised us and taken Hazel right out of her makeshift bed. I have no idea how a twelve feet tall giant with snakes for feet could have been that stealthy but he'd managed, somehow. The worst part was that Leo and I, who had taken the second shift, hadn't noticed until it was already too late.

I had really thought that Frank would kill us right then and there after we'd woken everyone up and told them what had happened. I was actually pretty sure that he would've if not for Annabeth, who'd started planning a rescue mission right away, giving him focus. She was awesome like that.

Her plan had worked astoundingly well until roughly two hours ago. We'd managed to lure Otis away from Hazel's cage with a few clever insults while still staying hidden; Piper had charm-spoken the monsters in the other cages, making them think of Hazel as just another boring plant and not a delicious demigod snack. And Frank, in the form of an admittedly really cute monkey, had been almost close enough to steal the cage keys from Otis' key chain. Unfortunately, somehow Otis had spotted Piper and wounded her arm so badly with his trident that Jason had had to fly her back to the Argo II to keep her from bleeding to death. I hoped she was okay, but you just never knew with giant weapons. In all the confusion, we'd blown our cover, and Otis had attacked. Resulting in my becoming a prisoner as well. Great.

At least I was close enough to protect Hazel if the giant tried to, say, feed us to his pet hydra.

"My shoulder hurts a bit. But I still have some ambrosia in my system, so it should be okay in a while," I lied to Hazel, "I'm sorry that you're still here. How are you feeling?"

Hazel shrugged and smiled apologetically. "I've been scared out of my mind since yesterday night, and I think my body just can't cope with all the adrenaline anymore. At the moment, I feel almost calm, as stupid as that sounds."

I offered her a small smile. "No, it's fine. I've been in the same situation. You just think, 'That's it, I can't be any more scared than I already am,' right?"

She nodded. "It was worst when I thought that he would kill me anytime. But he told me that he'd wait until the Feast of Spes the day after tomorrow. As long as we don't anger him, we'll be safe until then, at least."

I stared at her in disbelief. "You can't just give up, Hazel! We'll make it out of here, I'm sure of it!"

"You don't understand, Percy! I tried bending the bars, I tried manipulating the Mist, I tried moving the earth and attracting precious stones. But Gaia has been working against me. The only chance we have is that the others somehow manage to rescue us. But I'm afraid…" her voice faltered.

I put my arm around her shoulder, trying to comfort her. It was easy to forget that Hazel was so much younger than all of us. She was a really good fighter and the way she had learnt to handle the Mist was pretty impressive. But still.

"We're going to make it, Hazel. I'm sure Annabeth will think of a genius idea to get us out of here in no time, and then we'll smash this giant," I tried to encourage her.

"Percy, haven't you noticed?"

"What?"

"They've left. Annabeth and the others."

She was right. The insults had stopped coming, and Frank the monkey was nowhere to be seen.

"It's a tactical retreat," I said. But quite honestly, it was a funny feeling, being a prisoner and waiting to be rescued. This was probably what Nico had felt like in the little bronze jar out of which we had rescued him in Rome. I shivered.

"I miss my brother, you know," Hazel said, as if having read my mind. "He's the only family I have left. Sometimes I wonder if we haven't been asking too much of him. Shadow traveling from Epirus to Long Island… it's such a huge distance."

"I know that. But he's one of the strongest demigods I know! I've seen him twice in my dreams since leaving Epirus. Only snapshots, though, so I don't really know… But I did have this feeling last time that they were getting closer to camp. And Reyna really is a fantastic fighter—she and Coach Hedge will do all they can to protect him and the Athena Parthenos."

She smiled sadly. "Demigod dreams can be deceptive—"

A loud _boom _interrupted her. At the north side of the Panathinaiko, trees caught fire and monsters wailed in their cages. I couldn't see much, because of flags and statues blocking my view. But I could smell the signature scent of Leo's infamous distracting technique: sulfur and gunpowder.

"NO!" we heard Otis' scream. "Not with the fireworks! Put them to the right of the flowers, brother."

"Why did you move the fireworks in the first place, Otis? We talked about leaving the bombs next to the torch!" Ephialtes boomed furiously.

So the second of the Evil Twins had arrived. Looked like we were now stacked 1:1.

"I thought it would look better that way," Otis grumbled. "But it's good that you brought the bombs. We can use them at the great opening ceremony to spill the blood of the two demigods that I captured!"

"You captured two demigods? Alive? Oh, brother, I didn't know you had it in you!" Ephialtes chuckled, walking around the statues towards us.

He was still several feet away, but I could see that his stay in Tartarus had done absolutely nothing to help his appearance. He was still only about twelve feet tall, and his purple braids looked as tousled as they had when we'd defeated him in Rome. Like his brother, he was dressed somewhat like an ancient gladiator, though he had draped a giant leopard-fur over his shoulders and had bound a giant cub to his belt.

"Percy Jackson and the Underworld girl!" Ephialtes chortled merrily. "Brother, you have done well. I will think of a very painful death for you two."

"You think you can just kill us, you overgrown excuse for a caveman? Let me out, and I'll show you!" I shouted defiantly and stood up.

Ephialtes just smiled maliciously at that, coming closer. He stank of roses—_what?—_and gunpowder.

"You are pathetic, little demigod. Locked behind bars, trapped in a cage like a wild animal. Gaia is right to eradicate your kind from her surface. But if you behave, we can make your death quick and nearly painless," Ephialtes said.

Otis beamed. "Yes, let them help! They could do the flower arrangements so that we have more time to rehearse our choreography," he suggested.

Ephialtes bared his teeth in a grimace that was probably the giant equivalent of a smile. His eyes sparkled wickedly and I couldn't help but to think that whatever idea he had just had meant nothing good for us. I took a step back, trying to shield Hazel with my body.

"Yes, we can let them help, brother, " Ephialtes said, turning towards us. "Here are some basic rules that even you demigods should be able to understand: I will take one of you outside the cage. That demigod will do as I or my brother says without argument. If you fail in your task or cause trouble of any kind, I will first smash the other demigod's kneecaps. Then, the shoulder blades, and finally every. Single. Bone. One at a time. So you'd better behave."

He grinned and I felt like vomiting.

"Who wants to help me first?" Otis asked happily.

I had a hard time concentrating. I felt powerless, and the burden of being responsible for Hazel's injury—or worse, death—nearly crushed me. Still, I couldn't let them get near her.

"I do," I said, looking Ephialtes straight in the eye.

"Good," he said and with a speed I hadn't know he was capable of, he opened the cage, stuck his hand inside, and pulled out Hazel.

She screamed in surprise but Ephialtes silenced her with a hard glare.

"You don't get to decide, demigod," he hissed at me. He then put Hazel on the ground.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked Otis, her voice barely trembling.

_Wow._ I mean, that girl had a fantastic poker face! I don't know if I would have managed to appear as calm as she did if it had been me standing there.

"You go and attract jewels and other nice, shiny things," he told her. "You can add to our collection so that Gaia will have a _brilliant _entrance!"

Ephialtes groaned at the bad pun.

"Yes, show her where to start, brother," he said, "And I'll start with the Great Beast Set-up."

Which they did.

I know it sounds strange, but just sitting back in a cage, watching as the two giants got to work and Hazel was led in circles was hard. I tried to be productive but, just like Hazel, I couldn't bend the iron bars of my cage and my power to summon water didn't seem to be working either.

It helped that Otis was being downright civil to Hazel, though. A couple of times I heard him exclaiming 'Well done!' and 'Soo shiny!'; he was even pretending to ask her instead of just ordering her around.

Ephialtes, on the other hand, seemed to have found a new goal, which was tormenting me. Whenever he was close to Hazel and he saw me watching, he purposefully tripped her or pushed her forward. He dragged my cage beyond the shade of the statues into the heat and as he finished eating a banana threw the skin right in my face. The worst thing was that I was so hungry, I scratched out the little white remains inside the skin and ate them.

As the hours passed and sun sank low in the west, Hazel started to sway. Her face had reddened and her clothes were soaked with sweat. She staggered. Then, her whole body trembled, and she collapsed to the ground.

"What a useless one!" Ephialtes exclaimed, exasperated. "Well, looks like it's finally your turn, son of Poseidon. Not so keen now, are you?"

With a quick gesture, he ordered his brother to put Hazel's unconscious form down in the cage. I thought about using this opportunity to escape, but our chances were too slim. Hazel was in no condition to move and even I felt weak from lack of food and sleep.

That's why I didn't resist when Ephialtes grabbed me by my shirt and yanked me out of the cage. I would've fought like _hell_ if I'd known he was about to put a collar on my neck.

"Just another wild animal!" Ephialtes laughed evilly, pulling at the leash, "And you will be an obedient little pet if you don't want me to hurt your little friend. Understood?"

I nodded resignedly, and he once again flashed me his evil smile of evilness. "Oh, and strip. We don't want you to collapse with heatstroke, right?"

And so began my career as a property assistant in boxer shorts on a leash.


	6. Chapter 6: Reyna

**Chapter 6: Reyna**

I really hated being late. Not that I had a strict appointment, per se, but I needed to get this statue to Camp Half-Blood as soon as I could. Every second that passed could mean another life lost. I did _not_ have the time to be stuck in a goddamn traffic jam!

"Hey, girl. Calm down, will ya?" Patty, the kind but overweight and smelly pick-up driver to my left, said as we drove at walking speed. "There's probably an accident somewhere. But don't worry; the police is always quick to fix it when it's on 25. Relax, 'kay?"

Easy for her to say. It had been my plan to leave Block Island that morning, but after another empousa had attacked the truck I had been driving yesterday, I had missed the last ferry to Narragansett. The only hotel near the harbor had refused to give me a room ("No money, no vacancy!") and I had been forced to stay awake all night, guarding the Athena Parthenos and fending off minor monsters.

After I'd finally made it to Narragansett, it had taken me another two hours to find a driver with a vehicle big enough for my 'surfboard' who was also planning to take the ferry from New London to Orient. I couldn't be picky and, as I said, Patty was really nice. Unfortunately, she stank of fast food and cigarettes and listened non-stop to country music.

The 'You're my la-la-la-la-love' was getting on my nerves.

"Lucky I filled up the gas tank," Patty said. "Usually it's just an half an hour drive to Southold but I dunno. Must be something big. Oh, here we go!"

As the SUV in front us switched lanes, I finally caught a glimpse of what had caused the traffic jam: the road was nearly completely blocked by a truck lying on its side amidst hundreds and hundreds of spilled doughnuts.

I started to breathe faster as I saw two not-quite-human employees of the truck standing at the side of the road, arguing...and suddenly lifting their heads and sniffing at the air.

"Monster Doughnuts," Patty mumbled. "Never heard of that chain. But I'm on a diet so, eh… mind if I smoke another one to distract me from the appetite?"

"Go ahead. Please. Actually, maybe you should try smoking two or three at the same time. It might be more effective," I suggested, silently praying to Trivia that the stench of cigarettes would cover my demigod scent and that the Mist would fool the monsters.

"Thanks, girl," Patty said, and in no time I was sitting inside a cloud of smoke and ash.

I found it hard to breathe and with each passing moment I expected to hear monsters jumping on the hood or slicing up the wheels. But nothing happened. I think Patty smoked a whole pack before she suddenly flicked on her right blinker and took the exit turn.

"Sorry, girl, but you gotta get off now. I'm meeting my sister at the cemetery here. It's the first anniversary of our brother's death, ya know. But if ya follow the road past the school and turn right it's just another five hundred yards or so, and ya'll reach Southold station in no time."

She helped me unload the Athena Parthenos and waved goodbye as she strolled into the cemetery.

I wondered if it had been a long time since she'd seen her sister.

Seeing Hylla again would have been nice, but what I really needed was food and sleep. And a good idea how to transport a forty-foot high statue. Yeah, that.

_I'll manage somehow_, I thought to myself, and began pushing at the side of the statue. I winced at the sound the statue made as it scraped the pavement, but I didn't stop. Pushed at the left edge. Right edge. Left edge. The fact that my left hand was missing three fingers didn't make my task any easier, either. I counted the seconds… I was making very slow progress. The Athena Parthenos was moving only about a yard every twenty-five seconds, even though I pushed with all my might. I was sure Gaia had something to do with that, damn her. If I kept going at that pace, it would take me almost three and a half hours to reach the station! And it was already one in the afternoon. There had to be a better way. Maybe if I went back to the car and threatened Patty to take me the last few yards… Or I could go over to the schoolyard on the other side of the street and steal some skateboards from the kids there.

"This is why we don't allow solo quests," I muttered to myself and continued pushing.

"Excuse me, young lady," a voice from the right side said.

A friendly-looking man of about thirty-five years was standing beside me. He wore jeans and a green polo shirt and was toting an enormous tattered bag that seemed to be filled to the brim with papers. He looked concerned as his gaze fell on my bandaged left hand and the many scratches that I had acquired over the last few days.

"My name is Paul Blofis, and I couldn't help but to overhear you mentioning… quests. Eh, sorry if I sound like a nutter but would you happen to frequent a summer camp on Long Island?" He smiled nervously.

"My name is Reyna, praetor of the twelfth legion. I know of the summer camp you're speaking of. Are you a teacher there?"

"Oh, yes, eh, no. Well, I mean, I'm a teacher, but just a normal English teacher. A Muggle… eh, mortal. But do you know my stepson Percy?" he asked.

"Percy Jackson? I do. We're…comrades-in-arms, so to speak."

Mr. Blofis paled then gave me a huge smile. "He's still alive then? You have to tell me more. My wife and I haven't heard of him in a long time, and we're so worried—"

I interrupted him. "Sir, I need to get to this camp as soon as possible. People are dying there right now. I'll tell you everything I can if you help get me and this statue there."

He froze for a second, then nodded. "I know of a way. I'll be here in fifteen minutes. Stay where you are!"

And then he sprinted back across the street towards the school building.

He had just vanished from sight when an oversized gryphon attacked. Of course, for a monster that collected golden things, the Athena Parthenos would be the centerpiece of its collection and therefore irresistible. But why _now_? I cursed my bad luck.

_Clang, clang, clang._ The gryphon landed on top of the statue and tried to hack the golden layer right off the goddess' head.

"Stop that!" I shouted, throwing my Imperial gold dagger at it. But the monster easily dodged it and ignored me like I was an annoying insect that it could easily crush if it wanted to, but was of no importance right now.

I picked my dagger up and threw it again, but again it simply dodged. _Clang, clang, clang._

I had never met a gryphon before, but I had read about their razor-sharp claws and beaks. If it had been anything other than an enchanted statue, the monster probably would have already been successful by now, but as it was, it just grew more and more frustrated.

_SCREECH!_ It cried out in annoyance. It was so loud that pedestrians all around us started to stare and then shake their head. They were probably seeing a crazy pigeon or eagle or something.

I was tired and hungry, and I prayed to whoever would listen to just let the monster lose interest. But it didn't, so I could do nothing but to continue throwing my dagger at it and hoping that it would just once be too slow to dodge.

"Reyna!" I suddenly heard Mr. Blofis' voice and looked around.

He was sitting at the wheel of a yellow school bus and stopped (wheels half on the sidewalk) behind me. His hands were dirty, and he was out of breath as he jumped out of the front door.

"Sorry it took so long, but I had to fold down the seats and open up the tailgate," he explained. "What's that pigeon thing doing?" _Clang, clang._

"It's a gryphon. They collect gold for their nests and this one has been trying to scratch the gold coating off the statue's head for a while now. They're fast and it's too high up for me to kill with a spear."

"Well, we can't move your statue until it goes away… Have you tried scaring it away with loud noises? Most normal pigeons don't like them," Mr. Blofis offered.

"It's not a normal pigeon, though. It just ignores me!" I said.

He scratched his head while I picked up my dagger again.

"It builds nests, you said?" Mr. Blofis asked, turning towards the gryphon. "Hey there, Mrs. Gryphon lady. How are you today? How are your kids?" he shouted.

The gryphon stopped to stare at him incredulously.

"Eh, Mr. Blofis, sir… You might want to be more careful. They're said to be quite vicious—"

"It's okay," he said calmly. "Mrs. Gryphon, are you sure your kids are alright? It's a hot day. Shouldn't you protect them from direct sunlight?"

A hoarse cry was the gryphon's only reply, which seemed to encourage Percy's stepfather.

"Your kids need you to protect them. Go and see if everything is all right with them! I'm sure you have a great nest of gold already. You don't need any more, I'm sure. But your kids need you, Mrs. Gryphon."

The gryphon tilted its head to the side and looked Mr. Blofis right in the eyes, as though contemplating his words. And then, I could hardly believe my eyes, it spread its wings and flew away.

"Nice, Mr. Blofis. Good work!" I said. This had been _impressive_, especially for a mortal.

"Oh, it's nothing," he demurred, "Now, let's get your statue inside the bus, and we'll be on our way."

Stowing the Athena Parthenos inside the school bus was surprisingly easy. Mr. Blofis was strong, and we worked well as a team.

"We're lucky that we got this new school bus. I took my class from Goode High School to see a play here and it's got all the latest interiors. We didn't have GPS or folding-down seats before; not even a tailgate that you could open in an emergency," Mr. Blofis rambled as we drove. "It was a donation by Mr. Dare, father of a friend of Percy's. But now that we're on our way, can you tell me about Percy?"

"I will, but are you sure you know where we're going?" I asked.

Mr. Blofis smiled a sad smile. "Yes. Sally gave me the coordinates and we rehearsed time and time again how I would drive to Camp Half-Blood in case the worst happened… She even told me which roads to avoid, she did. But Percy's alive, you said. Do you know what he's doing or where he is?"

I told him the major facts. I felt strangely safe being driven by this man I had just met, but also incredibly tired and exhausted. I knew he was anxious to hear as much as he could about his stepson, but he still forced me to take short breaks between sentences and eat all of his four sandwiches.

"Thank you for telling me all this," he said after I had finished, "It's always hard for us at home, but I understand that you demigods do what you must. If you feel all right, I can keep an eye out for anything unusual and you can rest for a while. We still have over forty miles ahead of us, so there's a little time…"

I think he continued but I had already fallen asleep.

_Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano_, a voice called through the dreamy haze. A beautiful goddess in a dark brown robe and flowing black hair stood before me, eyes closed. _Gaia!_ I recognized her with a shiver.

_You have come far, daughter of Bellona. But all your efforts are in vain. Look at how your Romans are tearing each other apart._

Suddenly, I was hovering inside a tent. Underneath me, I saw Cara standing in a corner, looking terrified. Octavian stood before a table, his face twisted into a grimace of pure hatred, every pore of his body oozing anger and bloodlust. At his feet a small boy of no more than ten years knelt, his whole body shaking. I thought it was Asa, who had joined the legion only two short months ago, but it was hard to tell—his face was smeared with grease and blood.

"Let me get this straight," Octavian hissed. "The Greeks have destroyed all of our catapults and have stolen half of our weapons, due to the BETRAYAL of the shame of the legion, the leader of the Fifth Cohort, Dakota?"

"Yes," Asa whimpered, "Please don't hit me again."

Quintus stormed in.

"Octavian, it's even worse than we thought! At least two dozen of our legionnaires have taken food and weapons into the Greek camp. I believe that not only have they deserted, but that they will fight at the side of the Greeks if we attack."

"Impossible!" Octavian exclaimed. "How can this be?"

Quintus was breathing heavily. "Dakota seems to have convinced them that it was wrong to fight the Greeks. And it's not just the Fifth Cohort. Even Augustus and Lydia from the First have joined them."

"Traitors, all of them!" Octavian spat, "Asa, go and keep your eyes and ears open. Report anyone you hear talking about joining the Greeks to me. Dismissed!"

As fast as he could, the boy stumbled outside, and once they were alone, Cara started to speak.

"We cannot accept this open defiance. If we catch any of the deserters, we should hold a public execution to set an example."

"No," Octavian sneered, "It's too late for that. Once the seed of doubt has been sown, only drastic measures will help. Quintus, assemble the legion. We will do what we must. We will decimate them at sunset."

_NOOOO! _I screamed soundlessly inside my head as the scene vanished before my eyes. It just couldn't be true: Octavian planned to split the whole legion into groups of ten and have one of the ten be executed by the other nine! The decimation was a cruel form of punishment, outlawed long ago for a _reason_! The ones to be executed were chosen by chance, and the other nine were forced to kill a friend or comrade. It would severely demoralize the legion and instill obedience based solely on fear.

_Do you see, my fearless demigod, how the legion has chosen the path of self-destruction? It's only a couple of hours until sunset. And they don't even see the greatest danger. My son Enceladus is on his way and will crush whatever is left of your sorry lot tomorrow. The only way to prevent this would be for you to bring the Athena Parthenos to the camp. And you've nearly made it. You are only five miles away. I didn't expect you to come so far. But alas, I cannot permit you to reach your destination. Fare thee well, daughter of Bellona._

"REYNAAAAAAA!"


	7. Chapter 7: Percy

**Chapter 7: Percy**

_Note to self: Don't anger the hand that's holding your leash._

Because if you do, a twelve-foot-tall giant that stinks of sweat and roses will hurl you around like a human lasso at supersonic speed until your eyeballs feel like bursting and you lose every last drop of stomach acid you possibly have.

And he will keep going and _going_—until he gets called to eat and throws you back in a cage.

Which hurts.

"OWW!" I yelled in pain as I landed in the darkness and my hip fell hard on the iron bars.

The world was still spinning around me, and it felt as if at least every second bone in my body was broken. Only the red glow of the giants' campfire a hundred yards away illuminated my surroundings.

"Hazel?" I croaked.

I had a hard time making out her form on the spinning ground. It must've been long after midnight. Even though it was a capital city, Athens was eerily quiet. I really preferred the never-sleeping Big Apple.

"I'm okay," she replied groggily, "I saved some water for you. Otis didn't give me much, but it helps a bit."

She shoved a tattered plastic bottle in my direction through the darkness. I took a tiny sip to get rid of the acid taste in my mouth and spit it out through the bars. There was still some water left. And I was really thirsty. And hungry. And so tired. But mostly hungry. And unlike Hazel, I hadn't been forced to work in the heat.

"I don't want the rest, thanks," I slurred and tried to roll it back to her. The ground was still spinning, but it had slowed down a little.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded and tried to slow down my breathing, focusing on a spot of rust on one of the iron bars. _That's better._

"Liar," she murmured, drinking the last of it in one swig.

She coughed and shook her head.

"Percy, I… I just had a dream about my stepmom. She was in a dark room full of flowers and herbs. It was in the Underworld, I could sense it! I think... I think I saw Nico lying there. Percy, what if he's..." Her voice broke.

She sounded really worried but I had seen him in a dream not two days ago and he'd still been with Reyna.

"But you're not sure you've seen him, are you? Nico really is strong, you know. And wouldn't it be strange if Persephone were in the Underworld during this time of the year? Maybe it was just a regular dream."

Hazel shook her head.

"It wasn't. She talked to me about Ephialtes. But I didn't hear all of it, because, well... I woke up when you fell down next to me," she said apologetically.

"It's nothing we have control over, so don't worry. But what did she say? She didn't by chance promise to help us squash two stinking giants?"

"No. But she said that she'd already weakened Ephialtes, and that we only had to use the right method to destroy him," Hazel said.

That was… surprisingly good news. Maybe luck was finally on our side!

"Unfortunately, she didn't say_ how _exactly to kill him," Hazel sighed dejectedly.

"Hey, that's okay. We'll figure it out somehow. I'd bet my last shirt that Annabeth knows every legend about her. Maybe we have to water him like a giant flower and he'll turn into a nice palm tree!"

"About your shirt—" she began but suddenly stopped and stared over my shoulder.

_Leo!_

"Hi, guys," he whispered with a grin. "Sorry it took so long, but we had to find the right equipment." With that, he proudly presented a very complex-looking skeleton key and started working on the lock of our cage.

"The giants are right there. If they spot you..." I hissed.

"Not if you shut it, Jackson. Piper is trying her best to hide us in the Mist—she practiced all day, you know—and Frank and Jason will be causing a distraction right about..._now."_

_BOOM!_ Lightning struck a tree near the cages of the leopards and lions and the animals went wild, roaring and clawing at the bars.

"Frank is egging them on. He can pretty much talk animal now! Which is impressive... but not as impressive as breaking a security Type FFF lock."

I could have hugged him as he pulled open the door but that would have been awkward. After all, I was still wearing just my underwear. And I was a little busy half-carrying Hazel.

"Where's Annabeth?" I asked as we crept towards the exit of the stadium.

"Scouting the area. We need a better grasp on what we can use and what they'll throw at us when we attack next time. Frank and Jason will follow us. Now hurry up, if you can. Eh... Your clothes?"

"A giant mistook them for toilet paper," Hazel sniffed miserably.

"Let's consider them gone," I said and we hurried along.

The way to the Argo II seemed to be too long, but Leo fed us tiny amounts of nectar whenever we thought about just stopping and lying down to die. The last climb up the rope ladder was the hardest but again Leo tempted us—this time with water for washing up and a new outfit for me.

Eventually, we made it but I didn't allow myself to relax for another ten minutes. Then finally Annabeth and the others arrived safely. Frank had turned into a giant eagle and had been carrying Annabeth in his sharp claws. Not that I liked claws anywhere near my girlfriend but I was still very relieved to see her whole and in one piece.

"We'll update you later. Now, give your body time to heal. Sleep well, Seaweed Brain," she said, and kissed me.

And when Annabeth tells you to do something, you listen. It's usually better that way.

I dreamt Nico was dying.

He was lying totally motionless on a bed of lilies, his hands folded like he was praying. His tousled hair had been combed, his clothes washed and ironed. He looked drained; there was no better word for it. His skin and even his lips looked grey and nearly translucent. It reminded me of a public viewing, and I felt my heart thump painfully against my ribs.

Suddenly, Persephone entered, dragging maybe my least favorite uncle behind her.

"Your son needs you. Help him, I know you can!" The goddess of springtime growled.

She was beautiful in her anger. Her eyes sparkled with determination, and every ounce of her demeanor screamed, 'I am your Queen, obey me!' Looking at Hades, on the other hand, was hard. His form was constantly shifting between his Roman and Greek aspects; he clutched at his head in pain. Persephone then grabbed his hand, laying it on Nico's forehead.

"You'll regret it if you don't save him. Show him your strength," she urged.

Hades' hand trembled and a light blue fog left his fingers and went to cover first Nico's torso then his throat. Suddenly, though, he jerked his hand back.

"Who have you brought here, wife?" he demanded angrily.

Persephone stared at him in disbelief. "Your son, Nico! Surely you remember him—he's been around more than any of your other offspring before!"

"I have no son," his Roman persona declared and stormed out of the room.

The goddess tried to hold him back, but she was too slow. Angrily she clenched her fists then whistled like you would whistle for a dog. But instead of a beagle or a poodle or something, one of her ghostly maids appeared out of thin air, carrying more flowers. White roses this time, like Nico needed more funeral flowers.

She checked his temperature and shook her head. Then she turned and looked me directly in the eye.

"I know you're there, Percy," she said. "If Nico passes on, you have to destroy the giants without him. There will be others even I don't know how to defeat. But with the green-haired twin, the unhappy couple is key. That's all I can tell you."

And with that, she vanished, and I woke up.

"... I really don't know what she meant," I heard Hazel saying.

"Percy!" Annabeth exclaimed. "How are you feeling? We let you sleep—you looked like you needed it. Are you in any pain?"

I squinted blearily. I felt like I had a hangover from too much nectar. It's kind of hard to concentrate when your head is pulsating like a swarm of wasps is trapped inside.

"Had a dream," I mumbled.

And then I remembered: Nico was dying. The boy I should have protected all along... I felt helpless. _Scratch that._ I _was_ helpless. _Did they feed me lead in my sleep? _I wondered. My stomach felt full of it. But if I couldn't protect him, I could at least do something for his sister. I decided not to tell them about that aspect of my dream. Well, I would explain it to Annabeth, but later.

"What did you see? Reyna?" Jason asked.

"No...Persephone. She talked to me a little bit. Something about defeating Otis. She said, um, the unhappy couple is key."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Piper said. "And who's the unhappy couple? Jason and I are fine."

Jason grabbed her hand and smiled reassuringly.

"So are we," Frank said, but Annabeth shook her head.

"We're at war. So of course nobody is completely content. But maybe she wasn't talking about us at all."

Leo frowned. "You mean there could be help from someone else? Like in those Egyptian myths, where the sky and earth deities are forced never to touch even though they're in love? And they'll come to the rescue?"

"I don't know. But it's a possibility," Annabeth said. "Anyway, we should try to defeat Ephialtes first."

"Annabeth had a great idea about what Lady Persephone told Hazel," Frank said. "When we were distracting the giants, we all noticed that Ephialtes smelled really strongly of roses. Hazel told us that he brought explosives yesterday, and Annabeth found out that there's a fireworks factory just outside of Athens. Right next to it there's a company that makes perfume. Both factories were destroyed recently, and while it's obvious that Ephialtes is to blame for the fireworks factory, Lady Persephone might've had a hand in the demolition of the perfume factory."

"The point is," Leo interjected, "that perfume is made with a very, very high alcohol concentration. And the way he stank of roses, Mr. Purple Hair must have taken a bath in that stuff!"

I just stared blankly. _How did this help?_

Leo must have seen the question marks above my head, because he rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Alcohol is _really_ flammable! Just one spark, and he goes _kaboom!"_

Annabeth scoffed. "It won't be as easy as that. We'll probably have to fight him, weaken him a lot before we can burn him to ash. And even then, I'm not totally sure that this'll be enough."

"Plus, you know, there's still the minor question of how we'll set him on fire," Jason mused. "I can't steer a lightning bolt with that much precision, and I'd prefer Leo not to get closer than he has to."

"We'll figure it out," I said, and voiced my most pressing concern. "But we need to separate them. There's no way we can defeat them both at once."

Annabeth smiled at me in a way she sometimes did that caused my stomach to somersault. _I had said something intelligent! Yay me!_

"I agree with Percy. So...looks like we need a distraction."


	8. Chapter 8: Nico

**Chapter 8: Nico**

Time moves differently in the Underworld, especially if you're dreaming, or—as was the case with me—floating between hazy awareness and oblivion.

I could have been there for an hour or a month. Specters passed idly by, some just curious and probably hoping that I would die already, others bringing flowers and wiping my forehead. I think my stepmother poured some liquid down my throat once, but it could've been my imagination.

I deliberately say 'imagination,' not 'dream,' because my dreams were vastly different. While everything in the reality around me was hazy, grey, and dark, my dreams were clear, filled with color and life. I might have mistaken dreams for actuality if not for the fact that I was always somehow floating above the scenery. Just like now.

I found myself over a narrow street that ran through a clearing in a forest. A yellow school bus blocked the road, and was currently under attack by a pair of Laestrygonians. They were at least eight feet tall apiece and heavily tattooed. One was rather old-looking (he reminded me of a grumpy Roman at Camp Jupiter), while the other one looked much younger. Well, he dressed like he was, at least. While the older one wore woolen trousers and a brown vest, the young one sported a pair of blue jeans and a fitted shirt ordering readers to 'Keep calm and be eaten' (in ancient Greek, which is why I had no problem reading it). Before them stood Reyna, who I'd recognize from any perspective, and a middle-aged man. Reyna was thrusting her javelin at the monsters while the man shouted, "Meat is not healthy! Fat is bad for you! Go vegan!" etc. While the younger Laestrygonian ignored him, the older one got distracted.

"You know nothing about nutrition, mortal. We have been cannibals for eons and have become one of the strongest types of roaming monsters—"

He didn't finish his sentence because Reyna whirled and impaled him. The monster exploded in yellow dust.

The man quickly knocked off the dust from his shoulders and turned slightly. That's when I realized that it was Mr. Blofis, Percy's stepfather. A man that could not even see monsters for what they were, but had fought in the battle against the Titans nevertheless. And now he was helping Reyna. The Jackson-Blofis family really was extraordinary.

"You will pay for this!" the other Laestrygonian roared, swinging his giant club at Reyna. She dodged his strike and tried to hit his side. Unfortunately, she missed.

"Why do you call yourselves cannibals even though you only eat humans and demigods? Isn't it a bit illogical?" Mr. Blofis asked, trying to start a conversation, but the ogre had apparently decided that the time for talking was over.

"I will crush you!" he hollered and attacked with more vigor. Blow after blow landed, but Reyna was fast enough to evade them. Still, I could see that it was taking a toll on her. And she had no way of reciprocating; she couldn't let her defense down long enough to strike. The Laestrygonian's iron weapon destroyed several smaller trees, and its wielder trampled dozens of wildflowers that were blooming at the edge of the road.

Mr. Blofis changed tactics and started to hurl insults at the Laestrygonian targeted at his lineage. "Yo mama so ugly mirrors run away from her! Yo mama so fat she rolls instead of walkin'! Yo mama so stupid she don't remember her own name!"

Maybe it was a special Laestrygonian translation of the English language or something but it diverted his attention regardless.

"I will eat you piece by piece, mortal. You will have a very painful death," the Laestrygonian growled menacingly.

At that moment, though, Reyna plunged her Imperial gold dagger into his left calf and the Laestrygonian crumbled to dust with a loud howl.

I was proud of her. It's not easy for any demigod to take on two such monsters on his own, and she had no additional powers, so it was especially hard for her. And she'd still made it. She was a worthy praetor of Camp Jupiter.

Reyna sat down on the ground and took a few deep breaths.

"Good teamwork." She smiled at Mr. Blofis, who smiled back.

"He looked like one of those super-popular high school football players to me. I hated them as a kid, so—"

Suddenly, the soil behind them stirred, and to my shock I realized that _Gaia herself_ was taking form. At first she looked like other goddesses, beautiful though her eyes were closed, but she oozed an ancient power that made the hair on my arms stand straight up.

_You think you have cleared the way to your camp, but you are wrong. I will send as many of my sons and daughters as I need to stop you, daughter of Bellona, and you will never reach the camp. But you, mortal, you will not have a part in that_, Gaia rasped, pointing her finger at Mr. Blofis.

Instantly, he collapsed, not dead but unconscious.

As the Earth Mother was slowly sinking back into the soil, I heard the sound of thunder in the distance, growing louder and louder. Reyna knelt by Mr. Blofis, trying desperately to wake him. When he didn't, she hauled him up and dragged him back to the bus. Just in time, too. She barely had the time to swallow a tiny bite of ambrosia before the thunder crashed onto the road.

The 'thunder,' as it turned out, was the ominous rumble of horse hooves. Not just any horses, but—

"The flesh-eating mares of Geryon," Reyna groaned.

I knew that Percy had seen them on the Triple G ranch in Texas, but that was miles away. _How in Hades had they found their way to Long Island?_ Well, Gaia had apparently given them a special monster shortcut.

There were four of them, and they were all galloping at high speed towards Reyna and the school bus. They looked somewhat like regular horses, but their teeth looked razor-sharp and they had a maniacal gleam in their eyes. Even my sister probably wouldn't like them and Hazel was obsessed with anything equine. The first of the four was significantly faster than the other three and a light brown color. The second one was also fast, though not quite as fast as the first, and so white that even Austrian Lipizzaner stallions would have been jealous. The third one was yellow. Yes, yellow. Like an egg yolk. The fourth one…just looked evil. Plain evil. And not because it was pitch black, but because its eyes were incredibly calculating and cruel.

To be honest, I was extremely worried about Reyna. Two Laestrygonians were one thing. Four carnivorous mares were a totally different story.

Reyna charged, and the horses neighed, mockingly shrill. Obviously, she attacked the fastest first and–wow. Reyna really had moves. Instead of thrusting her spear or dagger forwards she vaulted, grabbed the brown mane of the mare, and somehow managed to lift herself on the horse's back. I think her plan was to ride the mare and attack the others from horseback, but, well… they weren't meant to be tamed.

"Brrrrrr, horse, brrrrrr," Reyna clucked, trying to calm the mare down as it bucked and tried to get rid of the snack on its back.

I knew that the legionnaires had (fortunately) practiced on some electric rodeo cows in Camp Jupiter at times, so maybe she stood a chance after all. The other three mares, however, took the demigod clinging to their companion as a personal offense, trying to bite Reyna whenever she lurched within their reach.

I don't know how she managed it but somehow Reyna was able to vaporize the white mare with a single, well-placed stab of her dagger. And as if the mares had just realized that yes, the demigod on the brown one's back was a worthy opponent, they all neighed loudly and attacked with more fervor.

The brown one clacked its hooves together, buckling up and down. The yellow one aimed for her right arm (which held her javelin), and the black one went for her left calf. Reyna was an extraordinary fighter, but it was sheer luck that the mares missed their marks. It was also sheer luck that the yellow one accidentally bit the brown one, who neighed in pain, throwing its head back. But it was thanks to Reyna's skill alone that she managed to stab the yellow one with her javelin at that moment.

As the second horse crumbled to dust, the other two suddenly stopped. Then I—and most likely Reyna as well—heard a voice. It was coming from the black horse that had taken a few steps back out of Reyna's reach. It snorted, "Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, praetor of the Roman legion. You have proven worthy and thus we will give you a choice. You can continue fighting us but this fight might prove deadly to you."

The mare paused. So... talking horses. Okay, I had seen stranger things.

"Or you can choose my sister and I as companions, and we will help you bring the Athena Parthenos to your friends." The mare's eyes glittered with malevolence.

_There's so obviously a catch,_ I thought. This was a flesh-eating monster! It just didn't get any less trustworthy.

"Of course, you will have to tame us first," the dark mare continued. "Feed us the mortal, daughter of Bellona, and we will follow you."

_What did I say?_

"Never!" Reyna hissed, and threw her dagger at the black mare.

Unfortunately, she missed and the brown one started galloping away. Which didn't make much sense, because simply galloping away didn't solve anything, even though the horse was unbelievably fast. Unless… _No!_

_Reyna!_ I ached to warn her, but I was just dreaming. And so I had to watch as Reyna's horse gained speed and galloped straight towards a rock face. I saw Reyna's eyes widen in realization. If the mare stopped, there was no chance for her to stay on horseback and she would be smashed on the rock face. I saw her close her eyes for a second.

_I will pray for you, Reyna, _I thought._ I will make sure that you go straight to Elysium._

With a loud cry, she rammed her javelin in the side of the horse she was riding. It worked in the respect that it send the horse straight down to Tartarus, but it didn't stop her from being flung off the horse's back at high speed and being smashed full force against the rock face.

I think I cried out even in my dream; it felt as though someone was clawing the heart out of my chest when I heard her cheekbones, her nose, her ribcage and pelvis shatter.

"So loyalty is your fatal flaw, daughter of Bellona," the black horse snickered as it came closer to Reyna's broken body lying in front of the rock face. "You should thank me for eating you. It'll put you out of your misery faster."

The worst thing was that the mare was probably right. I could feel Reyna's life force leaving her slowly, trickling out like the blood of her many wounds. It was not fair, it—

_WHOOSH._ The spot where the black mare had just been standing was suddenly covered with monster dust. What I saw perplexed me: right behind it Mr. Blofis stood, breathing heavily and clutching Reyna's dagger in his hand.

"Reyna!" he called, sinking to his knees.

She was unconscious and could not reply, which might be considered a blessing given the state of her body.

"No, no, no, no, no, NO," Mr. Blofis repeated over and over again as he inspected her injuries.

Then, very gently, he scooped her up and carried her back to the school bus. Blood dripped behind them as he moved ahead.

Finally, he carried her up the stairs and lay her down next to the Athena Parthenos. For several moments, he rummaged in Reyna's small backpack. I suppose Percy (or Percy's mom) had told him what nectar looked like, because he found one of the tiny vials and poured its entire contents down Reyna's throat.

I flinched because a whole vial was a _lot_ but luckily Reyna didn't burn up. The minor scratch wounds closed in a couple of seconds, but the broken bones would take many more hours to heal. And even with a whole vial, she did not regain consciousness. Still, I felt that she was no longer in life-threatening condition. _Thank you,_ Mr. Blofis.

Mr. Blofis felt her pulse and checked her breathing. Then he stormed outside the bus and looked at the sky. In a loud voice he cried, "Gods and goddesses! I don't know if you're even listening. But this girl has risked her life several times for the greater good today. If the word 'fair' means anything at all to you then you'll keep the monsters away from this bus until she has healed. It's the RIGHT THING TO DO!"

And with that, he went back into the bus.

Again I drifted back into the Underworld and heard the voice of my stepmother beside me. She sounded anxious. Again. Which I found really unlike her. I mean, I must have been in the Underworld for some time now and I felt that my body was still rather weak, but surely I wasn't getting worse? I could not discern any words and maybe that should have worried me, but as the aroma of fresh flowers filled my nostrils I gave up on trying to wake up and fell into another dream.

This time, I was close to Camp Half-Blood again, but it was several hours later. The sun was about to set and had bathed the Roman war tents in a blood-red light. Which was ironically fitting for what I was about to witness.

I cringed, because, while I had dreamt of the preparations, I had suppressed any thought about the decimation really happening. If I hadn't known Octavian, I would have guessed that it was an elaborate ruse, that there would be a call-off at the last possible minute. But it was unlikely. In my opinion, Octavian was so obsessed with power that he often lost sight of people. Not necessary evil, per se, but blind to the grief and hurt he caused. But I refused to feel hopeless. I knew there were lots of demigods or grandchildren of gods present, and surely one or two would protect their offspring.

As I watched, Octavian stalked through the clusters of legionnaires, glaring haughtily at each group of ten.

"Romans!" he exclaimed loudly. "It has come to my notice that some of you do not support our course of action. That some of you feel that the Greeks must be protected and that it is wrong to attack them. I tell you, you are mistaken! We are here with a very good cause. With the best cause, even. To defend our home and to destroy those who have threatened to destroy us! It was not us that attacked first. The Greeks did! We did not bring weapons into their home. The Greeks did! We did not bring pain and death in a time of peace. The Greeks did! This is why I tell you: We must stand united against the enemy. We must join our forces. Together we can defeat them once and for all!"

Octavian cleared his throat.

"However, some of you have already chosen your path. We will tell you now the names of the ones that have deserted and that have warned the Greeks today. The ones that have renounced the legion, that have gone over to the other side. They are no longer our brothers and sisters, and they are to be killed immediately by whoever has the opportunity. Failure in doing so will be punishable, same as desertion. Cara, please."

The smaller girl stepped forward and began to read a long list of names.

"Dakota Vinetum, Elias Nathan Goldberg, Gaius Pearson, Giulia Garcia, Gregory Matthias Gruber, Hugo Alvarez, Hana Rogers, Ida Sanchez, Ken Kitayama…"

She went on and on, but I wasn't listening. Instead, I scanned the crowd. Most of the older members of the legion had adopted stony you-will-not-scare-me expressions. The very young ones, who probably hadn't yet grasped what was going on and what was to come, just looked nervous. The rest looked, to various degrees, horrified.

After Cara had finished, Octavian continued, "As I said, the ones that have deserted the legion are to be killed immediately on sight. But the seed of doubt has already been sown in the legion. Like a flesh wound that is festering, causing the legion to bleed out, sapping it from its strength. I will not allow this glorious legion to be consumed by the very few willing to see it crumble. If a flesh-eating disease is poisoning my little finger, I will cut off my whole hand to protect the rest of my body! I have asked the gods, and the result of several auguries is clear! We only have one chance left to save the legion, and that it to get rid of the infected tenth of the legion. Our only chance, as the fates have spoken, is to enact a decimation!"

Immediately, people began murmuring in hushed tones, some obviously asking what decimation was, others trying to reassure each other that Octavian couldn't possibly be serious. A little girl on the far end started sobbing.

"Silence!" Octavian roared, "It was a surprise for me as well, but the fates have decided and I will not go against them. Ask yourself—is your life worth more than the success of the legion? Do you want to risk our doom because you do not trust the fates enough? Inscrutable are the ways of the gods, but if your heart is pure, you will draw a white bean out of the lot and not a black one. Stay in your groups of ten. We will start right now."

I didn't want to watch it. I really, _really_ didn't. But by Hades, I couldn't consciously steer my dreams away.

"First group," Cara called out. "As the highest ranking legionnaire, Hank, centurion of the Third Cohort, you will take this satchel with nine white beans and one black bean and pass it around. Whoever takes the black bean out first is to be executed by the other nine without delay. Use your daggers or gladii. No spathas, please. Lethal wounds are to be preferred. Start."

Hank reluctantly took the small satchel offered. Even though he had been a faithful member of the senate, a diligent soldier in the legion, his eyes betrayed his uneasiness at the proceedings.

"Marcus," he addressed the tall boy next to him, who solemnly put his hand inside the satchel and took out a bean.

It was white; I could tell from his face even before he fully opened his hand. A murmur that sounded like relief came from many of the legionnaires in the other groups, most likely other members of the Third Cohort.

"Asa," Hank offered the satchel to the small boy next to Marcus, smiling encouragingly.

The boy's hand was shaking as he put it inside the satchel and as he pulled it out again…

The black bean.

I knew that once you joined the legion you were no longer considered a child, but really, they couldn't be serious. He was a barely ten-year-old kid!

Obviously, the same thought had popped up in the heads of the other nine. Hank and Marcus looked at each other, unsure. The Ceres girl, Sylvia, looked like she wanted to cry, and the other six waited expectantly to see what their centurion would do.

"You know what you have to do!" Cara said, her voice icy cold. "Or do you want to go against the fates?"

Hank took a breath, then spoke calmly. "This is madness. I am a grandchild of Apollo and never would he have ordered the sacrifice of a child for the sake of so-called unity of the legion."

Cara's reaction was immediate. _Thump._ Her gladius went right through Hank's heart and his spirit fled his body.

Aghast, the rest of the group took several steps back from her.

Octavian jumped in, "This is what happens when you endanger the legion! Soldiers, it is not up to you to decide who lives and who dies. The fates have decided this long ago, and you are here to do your part. Whoever the fates choose tonight, we will give proper burial rites, and we will remember your sacrifice. But those of you who oppose the fates and who desert us, we will let your bodies rot on the ground and your remains be eaten by wild animals and monsters."

_What a harsh decision..._ I would have to talk to Charon (read: bribe him) to ensure the safe passage of their souls, even without the normally required coins. I could do that, if I survived long enough.

Octavian addressed the remaining eight standing with Asa, "Now you, do as you were supposed to all along. Execute him."

At that, Sylvia yanked the boy into her arms and, well… I couldn't really see what exactly she was doing. She had a hand above his mouth, so maybe she was suffocating him. The result was that the boy was dead in less than five seconds. And his soul even left rather peacefully, an indication of not having suffered much. That ruled out suffocation, which took longer and was a much more excruciating process. I knew.

When Sylvia looked up, she had tears in her eyes. Marcus gave her a tiny smile and took the dead body from her. Gently, he closed Asa's eyes and mouth and laid him down on the ground. He started a prayer, but Cara interrupted him.

"What did you give him? I explicitly said daggers and gladii only!" she snapped at Sylvia.

"You said lethal wounds are to be preferred." Sylvia replied, surprisingly calmly, "My mother gave me rosary peas before I left New Rome. She said I would know when the time to use them would come."

Cara scoffed but Octavian smiled sweetly. "You see, legionnaires? The gods are with us! As the auguries predicted, the decimation is necessary, and thus, we will continue. Group two!"


	9. Chapter 9: Percy

**Chapter 9: Percy**

Annabeth's plan to separate the giants was pretty straightforward—destroy their props and force them to get a replacement. And as Ephialtes seemed to be the more dominant of the two, she figured that he would probably send Otis away to get them, leaving us with a somewhat better chance to defeat him on his own. The obvious catch was not getting killed in the process.

By mutual consent (and because her arm wasn't yet completely healed), Piper was staying on the Argo II with a telescope. Leo had somehow programmed the ship to fly right over the stadium once she activated some special code in case we needed emergency air support. Her charmspeak also held all of the flying monsters at bay that would have otherwise tried to attack the ship—or, at the very least, leave some poisonous droppings.

Plan A was the safest. Use Jason's skills with lightning to attack from afar and destroy as many props as possible. But, well… Plan A failed immediately. I talked to Jason once about the mechanics of handlings winds and lightning, and it seemed to be much more vague than my ability with water. You just had to love water. You could see it, you could touch it, and most of the time it acted reasonably predictably. Not so much with wind and lightning. Jason managed three bolts before he collapsed and needed rest, and all they did was strike down a marble statue of a satyr being eaten by a hydra (not much of a loss) and set fire to a bunch of paper garlands. The disadvantage of Plan A was that it warned the giants.

"Demigods close by," Ephialtes said as he sniffed the air and that was that.

Annabeth had warned us that we would lose some time if Plan A failed but we had had to try anyway.

Back on the Argo II, Jason laid down to rest immediately and the rest of us prepared Plan B. Plan B was less safe, but it had a much higher chance of success.

"We need to attack at precisely eleven am to get the angle of the sun right," Annabeth explained, "Then Jason'll use Leo's triple-strength magnifying class to incinerate the carnivorous plants on the west stand. He'll hide behind the trees on the east side, and if we're lucky, the giants won't see them. Hazel, I know you said you weren't sure if it'll work, but try anyway. You hide right outside the north entrance and will the ground beneath the fireworks and cages to split open. Leo, you prepare the Greek fire; try to incinerate the bombs and fireworks if Hazel's part doesn't work out. If it does, you go for the cages with the monsters. Did you make a copy of the skeleton key you used on Percy's and Hazel's cage?"

"Course I did, lady general," he teased her before becoming serious, "I showed Frank how to use it and if he manages to stay in ape form, he'll have no trouble opening the cages."

Annabeth nodded, satisfied. "That leaves Percy and me as a back-up unit in case anything goes wrong. We have another two hours or so, so be sure to rest or prepare in the meantime."

While the others disappeared into their cabins or to the machine room or wherever, Annabeth and I stayed behind.

"You know, Wise Girl, I think you handled all that really well. I'm proud of you, you know that?" I said and I meant it.

Annabeth blushed and leaned closer to me. She looked somewhat sad.

"When I was a kid at Camp Half-Blood, I always wanted to lead my own quest. I thought that I would think of the greatest strategies, fool all monsters, do whatever I was supposed to do and get everyone back home safely. But Percy, I'm _scared_. I mean, I'm still convinced that I'm a really good strategist, but what if it isn't enough? Piper got hurt, you and Hazel got captured and we still have to defeat an unknown number of giants without the help of the gods, which should be impossible…"

I hugged her tightly and stroked her hair. "I know that. But we can't give up hope. We've been in so many tough situations, but we've always pulled through somehow. I know that there's a chance I'll die, but I have so much to live for. I want a future with you. In Camp Half-Blood, or maybe in New Rome..." I kissed the top of her head and held her a little more tightly.

"It'll work out, Wise Girl. We'll fight hard; we'll give it our best. And we'll stay together."

She kissed me, and I kissed her back, and when we went to my cabin I knew that, as sappy as it sounded, I was always meant to be by her side.

_RING DING RING DING! _I heard the alarm sound an hour and a half later.

"What's wrong?" Jason shouted as we all ran upstairs.

Hazel's hair was still soaking wet, and Piper looked like she was part mummy, as the reapplied bandage of her arm had come partially undone.

Leo looked at us kind of sheepishly and said, "Sorry, false alarm... I was tweaking Festus' monster-detection feature and he somehow thought that the flock of pigeons above us—"

"Take cover!" Annabeth shouted as a dozen pigeons attacked.

For the record, they were—of course—_not_ ordinary pigeons. At first they looked starved; all of them had holes in their plumage, bony necks and claws and darkly glowing eyes. They reminded me a bit of a certain son of Hades but I had a feeling that they had not been sent by him but rather by our favorite Earth Mother.

"Shoot them!" Frank shouted as his arrows killed three of the monsters.

Unlike him, though, we others did not make a habit of carrying bow and quiver with us and thus had to resort to other techniques.

"If you sit down nicely on the ground, we will feed you. Sit down calmly, I know you want to!" Piper tried to use charmspeak on them.

While it didn't work well, it confused the birds and between Jason, Frank and I we killed all but one in a couple of minutes. The last one tried to escape by flying over the railing but Leo's slingshot shot sent it spiraling down into the depths.

"Good work, guys," Annabeth said. "And good job with Festus, Leo."

Leo beamed. "At your command, general! The zombie chicks won't come near us again in the near future."

"Attack of the zombie chicks. Sounds like the next blockbuster, yeah?" I joked.

Annabeth laughed out loud and soon everyone was giggling.

Well, it hadn't been the joke of the year but it was nearly time to go into battle again. A little comic relief always helped to lift the mood.

"Come on, everybody. You're all prepared, right? It's time to start Plan B now," Annabeth urged.

And, with Piper as our backup on the Argo II, we descended from the ship and made our way to the stadium.

It took quite a while because, of course, such a large group of demigods attracted all kinds of monsters. But it wasn't anything we couldn't handle. To be honest, it was a really good feeling to know that everyone could handle the minor monsters alone. Even Leo, who was more of a mechanic than a fighter, vaporized a monster feline with his celestial bronze screwdriver. Annabeth had told me again and again that it was not up to me alone to shoulder the weight of the world (well, we both had at one point, but anyway) but now I could really believe it.

We heard the giants before we saw them. They were shouting angrily, which was good. But as we got closer, we could see that they had redecorated, which was definitely _not_ good. The main entrance to the stadium was blocked with dozens and dozens of huge statues and foothold traps were spread all over the place.

"Damn it, they're prepared," Jason said.

Leo scoffed. "You don't say, Captain Obvious. I mean, give me a minute and I'll disable all the traps but there's no way we'll get around those statues without them seeing us."

"Jason, can you fly a couple of feet high and tell us if that's all they did?" Annabeth asked and Jason took off right away.

In the mean time, Leo rummaged through his tool belt and quickly threw two dozen or so insect-shaped mini automatons at the traps. It was strangely satisfying to watch how, one after the other, the traps snapped without even so much as scraping the tiny automatons.

"Come to daddy!" Leo grinned as they completed their mission and jumped back in his tool belt just as Jason landed next to Hazel.

"They moved pretty much everything, really. The plants and garlands are all stretched out, so we can scratch the idea with the magnifying glass. And they put the bombs and fireworks behind some pretty massive looking metal cages. The animals are still mainly at the south end, so maybe Frank still has a chance there."

Annabeth exhaled audibly. I knew she hated it when her plans failed but she was usually pretty good at improvising, so…

"Okay. We'll try something else, then," she said and I couldn't help but smile at her.

Of course she had a back-up plan, and a back-up plan for the back-up plan.

"I don't think they'll let us separate them," Jason intercepted her, but Annabeth just nodded.

"I don't think so, either. They see us as a threat now. And we're running out of time. We'll have to take them on simultaneously. So what we'll have to do is… well, I can't approve of it from a scholastic point of view, of course, but then I see no other way."

She took a deep breath and then elaborated, "We need better weapons. A heli would be nice, and some artillery. And there's only one place we'll find all that: the Athens War Museum."

"Whoa, there," Leo said, "I don't have a wisdom goddess for my mum, but don't they just store ancient and broken stuff in museums?"

Annabeth smiled. "My dad visited it last year and, well, he can see a little more than most mortals. He said there's an extensive collection of celestial bronze, including some rather modern weapons. I really don't have a better plan."

"It's our best bet. Let's go!" I said, and together we marched along the road.

Well, not quite together. Jason flew back to get Piper. Yes, I knew that her charmspeaking abilities would come in handy as we were... eh, _borrowing_ their weapons. But I still felt that Jason was overusing his powers a little. Or maybe I was just jealous... Anyway.

It took us at least an hour to reach the museum because minor monsters were blocking our path at every other turn. If I had told my twelve-year-old self that one day I would only think of dracanae as 'annoying little beasts' while slashing through them, I wouldn't have believed it. Humans really could get used to anything.

"WOW!" Leo exclaimed as we reached the museum. "Look at all that cool stuff!"

And while I didn't say it in as many words, I agreed. On the ground around the museum stood several canons, ballistae, catapults, etc. There were WWII Grecian Air Force planes and even the helicopters Annabeth had mentioned—seven, to be exact. I decided that this was a good omen.

"Most of this stuff is really old," Jason said solemnly. "I doubt it will work."

"Old, but not useless!" Hazel insisted.

She looked around and pointed at one of the cannons. "That one over there? Celestial bronze-alloy. The cannonballs next to it as well. I'm not an expert on weaponry, but they feel solid."

Leo went to said cannon and inspected it closely. That is, he took a less-than-five-second look at it then declared, "I agree with Hazel. It's old, but not rotten. I would say there's at least a 90% chance that it's ready for combat."

"Sounds good to me," Frank said, then turned to Hazel. "Anything else of use?"

Hazel looked slightly unsure and paced up and down for a couple of meters.

"The cannon on the far right should work as well. And there's definitely something inside the museum, but I can't say what exactly it is or if we can use it. The helicopters all hold a certain percentage of celestial bronze, but it's not all that much. We'll probably have to check each one to see if it's still usable."

"Okay, don't get me wrong, guys, but those canons look pretty heavy," I said, "We'll need some kind of transportation to get them to the stadium. Otherwise, we'll have to risk taking the Argo II away from the harbor..."

Annabeth and I both shuddered. It had been a disaster when we tried to take her into the city on the day of our arrival. Somehow, the airspace at the coast had been moderately safe, so we decided to let her stay there unless there was a real emergency.

"I've always been good with convincing people to give me their vehicles, so that should work," Piper said.

"Okay, then, here's the plan: Hazel and Frank you get into the museum and try to get us whatever you think is useful. Small bombs, hand grenades, Greek fire... As long as you sense celestial bronze or Imperial gold, it should work on the giants. Hazel, I hope the Mist helps cover your movements, but if it doesn't, Frank can turn into something menacing and scare the mortals away. Leo, you check out the helicopters, and Piper, you try to get us one or two cars to transport the cannons. Once we've got them, Percy, Jason, and I will load them into the vehicles. Jason, you try and help Piper, too. Smile at the mortals, and so on. Okay?"

The others nodded and everyone but Annabeth and I got straight to work, which made me feel a little useless.

"So," she said, "I need your help with the strategy."

I just looked at her incredulously. Like, _What, me? Strategy?_ I was more of an 'attack first, think later' kind of fighter.

"Oh, Percy, _really_. It's a good idea! Besides, you've fought both of them before."

"Well, yes, but it's kind of a blur..."

Annabeth rolled her eyes at me. "Fine! Just listen first, then, and tell me what you think, okay?"

_All right with me._

"We have an idea about how to defeat Ephialtes. In short, take advantage of the fact that Persephone has soaked him in alcohol and then incinerate him. We have a very vague clue that an unhappy couple has to work together to defeat Otis. I still don't know how to interpret that, but I think that we shouldn't split up the couples—keeping them together will heighten our chances. I also think we should focus on destroying Ephialtes first. If we manage to send him to Tartarus, Otis might not know what to do. Maybe Piper can even convince him to go to Tartarus to search for his twin."

What she said made sense. I especially liked the part about us _not_ splitting up to take on the giants.

"So, you, me, Jason, and Piper against Ephialtes while Leo, Hazel, and Frank take on Otis?" I asked.

"Percy, think! Of course you're a strong demigod but your powers are the exact opposite of fire! I thought Leo, Frank, Hazel, and Jason should fight Ephialtes and we'd go with Piper against Otis."

Aaaalright then.

"So Jason is more powerful than me? That's not a nice thing to say about your boyfriend!"

I mean, really? Plus, in Tartarus I had found a way to manipulate other fluids, not just seawater.

"This is _not_ about power alone, Percy. I thought that Hazel could try and summon coals. I mean, we've seen her attract diamonds lots of times and coal is just a not-quite-finished diamond. And Frank could turn into a dragon, or something else that spews fire. Leo isn't the best fighter of our group but he _is_ pretty much inflammable. He can incinerate the coals, if need be. And Jason is the obvious choice for reinforcement!"

I scowled. "I don't get it, but you probably have a reason."

"Of course I do! Imagine, Percy, a fire-spewing dragon, a giant, the moving ground... Jason has the best chance of dodging it all by flying, and he can rescue Hazel as well if—"

"—things get too hot." I sighed. "Fine, I understand, sorry. But why split up Piper and Jason? Or do you think we're the unhappy couple that's key to crushing Otis"

"We need Piper to charmspeak Otis. If he thinks his twin is in danger, he might not bother with us and just go full force against the others. Though just between us, we should be able to stop him. And as for the unhappy couple, I really don't know. I just hope that we'll manage to destroy Ephialtes first so that we can all attack together. And I've been thinking, you know. It's an ancient law that only gods and heroes working together can defeat a giant. I thought maybe Leo and Piper have to fight together so as to figuratively bring Hephaestus und Aphrodite together."

"Oh, yeah, right. They are married, but not happily, right?" I asked.

Annabeth nodded. "Aphrodite is the goddess of love, not of marriage. She's had a couple of kids with Ares and, of course, mortals. But still, it's a pretty far-fetched theory…"

She looked at me, and I hugged her again. Sometimes, I wondered how she managed to stay so calm. Annabeth was logic-driven. She had most likely calculated the probability of victory of a dozen different scenarios or so. And chances were that none of them had a really high likelihood of success. Still, she motivated us and gave us hope that we would push through. She would have been an amazing praetor in New Rome. But then again, she was pretty amazing whatever she did, so—

"There they are," she said as Piper and Jason sprinted towards us, two pick-up trucks following them.

"Thank you so much for selling us your cars. Have a great day!" Piper thanked the owners, who gave her the keys and waved a cheerful goodbye.

Jason laughed. "You should have seen her! She just smiled at them and they wanted to give her the cars for free! But Piper here reimbursed them. Didn't you, Piper?"

"My dad doesn't need the money and he'll be happy thinking that I took a vacation in Athens," she agreed.

Together we managed to heave the cannons and several cannonballs on the trucks. Right as we finished, Hazel and Frank came out of the museum, Frank's backpack looking suspiciously full.

"We found a couple of grenades and the like. Leo has to figure out how they work exactly, but it's better than nothing," Frank told us.

"Oh, hey, sweet stuff!" Leo cheered as he ran towards us. "I've got good news as well. Two of the helis are still usable, and they're equipped with some really wicked special effects. Looks like the work of Hephaestus kids, if you ask me."

He grinned. "So, are we ready or what?"

Annabeth smiled. "Alright, everyone. Jason, Hazel, Frank, you guys take the first vehicle. Percy and Piper, you take the second. Leo and I will fly and take the explosives. We meet up at the blocked entrance, where I'll tell you about the rest of my plan."

"I'll be there first. Try not to get stuck in monster traffic," Leo joked.

Still grinning, he started running.


	10. Chapter 10: Reyna

**Chapter 10: Reyna**

I felt a pain reminiscent of being squashed by a giant python. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to move. But I felt that I needed to wake up. I was unsure of why, exactly, but I knew it was important.

Suddenly, the smell of old sandwiches and teenage deodorant hit me, and I remembered: the flesh-eating mares of Geryon. I had defeated all but one, but the last had smashed me against a rock face. How was I still alive? I groaned as I slowly forced my eyes open.

"Reyna! Thank god you're awake," a man's voice said right next to me.

I winced, the sound too loud for my ears. But I recognized Mr. Blofis. He was no threat.

"How are you feeling?" he asked. "You've been out for the last sixteen hours or so."

I froze. I had been out for more than half a day, meaning the decimation had taken place. All those demigods had died, just because I hadn't been there to stop Octavian. I had failed.

"I've been better." My voice sounded hoarse and brittle.

Mr. Blofis nodded sympathetically and handed me a bottle of water and a granola bar.

"Here, eat that and drink up. You look dehydrated, which isn't surprising with all the heat and physical exercise you've been getting."

When I complied—because, well, he _was_ right—he continued. "There's not been an attack on the bus since the horses. Or rather, there were several, but I asked for a guardian while you were unconscious, and it looks like I was heard. There's been an eagle and a goose fighting off monsters ever since. If we're lucky and you feel we can go on, they might help us make the last miles to camp. Or would you rather go to a hospital, get a couple of professional stitches and get your broken bones seen to? I'd drive you, you know."

Despite the situation, I smiled. He was a really nice man. And the godly help was good news.

"Thank you, Mr. Blofis. But every moment counts. If you're willing, you should drive us to camp instead," I said. "And let's pray for the best."

As he steered the yellow school bus along, I could feel my resolve strengthening. Yes, I had failed to stop the decimation. But I could still succeed in stopping a civil war and maybe even help mend the split personalities of the gods. Helter-skelter the bus went over the bumpy road, and every inch brought me closer to my goal. Despite Gaia's threat, no monster crossed our path.

"We're close," Mr. Blofis said after several minutes. "I think it's just behind the hill—"

He stopped talking abruptly. As if it had heard what he'd said, the Athena Parthenos began to glow. It was like a pulse—brighter, darker, brighter, darker, and brighter again. I felt the light encompass me, and a sense of rightness filled my chest. As praetor of the Roman legion, it was my duty to right the wrongs of my ancestors. I would bring the Athena Parthenos back where it belonged. I _would_ succeed.

The bus stopped at the top of the hill, near a mangled yellow fleece stretched between two trees. We had arrived. I jumped quickly out of the bus and took in the scenery. Below me lay a valley. In the west, acres and acres of strawberry fields stretched out; in the far north I saw a wide expanse of forest, and even further on was the sea. Two rivers ran through the valley—the eastern one even turned into a small lake at one point. It would have been idyllic, if not for the fact that buildings were burning and discarded armor lay strewn on the ground. The eastern river seemed to build a natural border between what was left of the Greek's territory and what was already utterly devastated. On the east side, I saw the ruins of a house, an amphitheater and several others. And lining up on the east bank of the river stood my legion in battle formation. It was much smaller than it used to be, and many of the legionnaires sported rough bandages. On the other side of the river, Greeks roamed, some badly wounded, most in full battle armor. A centaur was talking to a Roman legionnaire. I could not discern who it was exactly from the distance, but it must have been one of the deserters Octavian had talked about. Here and there a monster was trying to kill whatever Roman or Greek demigod it could, but they were soon disposed of. The whole scene gave me the feeling that the Greeks had withstood the brunt of the monsters' attack—and won!—and were now faced with a second army that stood against them.

"Reyna," Mr. Blofis called from behind me. "I untied the statue! Would you help me get it out of the bus?"

This time, I felt like the Athena Parthenos was a hundred times lighter, almost as though it wanted us to put it on top of the hill. It glowed and shimmered in the mid-day light and pulsed at a high frequency. Then it stood, and suddenly I heard a voice inside my head.

_Well done, daughter of Bellona. You have brought me back to where I belong. But to end the feud, to reconcile Romans and Greeks, your legion must accept your offer. Convince them!_

_Easier said than done_, I thought to myself_. _As I carefully made my way down the hill (after telling Mr. Blofis to drive away, as this was no place for a mortal), Romans were pointing their fingers up at me, some shouting, "Reyna, it's Reyna!" Others just eyed me suspiciously. The fact that no one broke formation to greet me spoke silent volumes about Roman discipline.

"Reyna," Octavian greeted me coolly.

He was dressed for battle, bearing a sword and shield, which looked odd on him—I was so used to seeing teddy bears and other stuffed animals at his hip instead.

"I see you have done as the Greeks said. You have brought that statue all the way from Europe. Impressive."

"And you, Octavian, have acted against my strict orders. I told you before witnesses that you were not to lead an attack against the Greeks, but you have defied my direct order as praetor!" I said loud enough for every legionnaire to hear.

Whispers started all around me. Obviously, Octavian had neglected to communicate the nature of my orders. For a second he looked uncertain, but then his face turned into the same old mask of superiority.

"You are mistaken, _former _praetor of the legion. Once you foolishly crossed the Atlantic and went to the Ancient Lands, you were expelled from the legion. It is our law, and I was within my right to act as I thought best for the legion," Octavian said smugly.

But I knew that I had a goddess on my side, so I ignored him and addressed the crowd instead: "Romans! I have come from the Ancient Lands to bring to our Greek brothers and sisters the Athena Parthenos. This statue was stolen by our people centuries ago, and that heinous act created a rift between us Romans and the Greeks. But times have changed now. The Gigantes are rising, and even Gaia herself is preparing to wake and end the world as we know it. We can no longer fight against each other. We must stand united against the common enemy; the gods will join us! Alone, we will perish and Gaia will win. Together, we can prevail. Together—"

"You speak with a cursed tongue!" Octavian hissed angrily. "Don't let her fool you, legionnaires. She has deserted us already and tries to lead us to our doom. She says the Gigantes are rising. But have we seen one? No! Just common monsters that have attacked the Greeks. She says the gods are with her, but take a good look! She has lost three fingers, and her armor is broken. Is this what a champion of the gods looks like? Twelfth Legion Fulminata! The time is here to destroy the Greeks once and for all. Now—"

"I think Reyna is right," Sylvia, daughter of Ceres, said loud and clearly, her voice ringing out and stunning him into silence.

She was just in her third year of the legion, but she took a step outside of the formation to advance towards us.

"You have seen what Octavian has brought us—fear, hunger, death! I follow no leader that forces us to kill our friends. I have brothers and sisters by blood on the other side of the river. They might know our mother as Demeter, but I feel that we are the same. I join Reyna and hope you do the same!"

"Traitor!" Cara exclaimed. "Reconsider, or your life is forfeit!"

Stanley, member of the Fifth Cohort, blocked her way. "You will not touch her ever again," he hissed, but as he flexed his arm to strike, a loud roar crashed through the tense quiet.

_Thump, thump, thump. _I could hear the steps of something huge advancing in on us from northeast. But not just that. Monsters and more monsters accompanied whatever was coming. Cyclops, dracanae, hydras—a whole collection of Tartarus' finest. And then, loud, evil laughter that sent shivers down my whole body.

"You little mortals think you can stop me," a deep voice boomed, and we saw him. "I am Enceladus, bane of Athena. Prepare to die."


	11. Chapter 11: Nico

**Chapter 11: Nico**

I was dreaming of death and devastation. Monsters led by a giant were running amok in Camp Half-Blood, destroying every obstacle in their path. Greeks died. Romans died. Monsters died. The chaos was absolute.

Athens wasn't much better.

_BOOM_ went Hazel and Piper's cannons as they blasted the way free into the Panathenaic stadium.

"Ugh, demigods again!" Otis snarled. "We have to prepare for the arrival of Gaia. Go away or offer yourselves as blood sacrifices!"

"Okay, Mr. Bad Hair Day! Here I come!" I heard a well-known voice from above.

It was Leo, flying an old army helicopter. I could see him faintly through the tinted glass. He looked right at home, totally in his element, steering the machine like he was born to do so, dropping little bombs on the giants below him. He even wore an old-fashioned pilot helmet and a pair of tattered goggles!

Even though the bombs didn't do much damage, they at least distracted the giants enough for the others to enter the stadium without any trouble.

I saw Hazel hiding behind a half-smashed statue, a look of intense concentration on her face. _Is she summoning gold or something? What for?_ Jason and Frank attacked Ephialtes; Percy and Piper went for Otis. And Annabeth…oh, right. There was another helicopter circling above the stadium now. She was probably inside that one.

"Hey, Otis, don't you think it's a good idea to take a nap?" Piper tried to charmspeak the giant.

"I am _sooo_ tired," Percy said loudly. "I think the shade over there looks perfect for a nice, long afternoon nap."

Otis did look tired, the lines of his face drooping momentarily, but then he shook his head.

"No! I have to prepare for Gaia's arrival tomorrow. Our brothers will come as well. We have to impress them. And _you_ are in the way, demigods."

He charged and threw his net alarmingly close to Leo's helicopter. I thought that Annabeth would use this moment to attack the giant from the side, but instead she aimed at the paper garlands to his left.

"I needed those!" Otis hollered as they burned, stomping his foot like a little kid.

Percy and Piper crouched down behind a cage, whispering. I couldn't tell if they had thought of some kind of elaborate plan—it was confusing to watch.

In the meantime, Jason and Frank were vigorously attacking Ephialtes. Frank was an archery prodigy, and together with Jason's sword skills, they were able to inflict several wounds, out of which ichor streamed to fall hissing to the ground.

Hazel still hid behind the statue, but now I could see that she was focusing on the ground...summoning charcoal? No, brown coal, I realized. And quite a lot of it, too. When the pile of coal had surpassed Hazel in height, she came out from her hiding place and flashed Jason and Frank a thumbs-up. This seemed to motivate them, and they resumed their assault with renewed strength. Leo was dropping grenades at the giant's feet that went _badaboom! _Together they drove Ephialtes towards Hazel's pile of coal like they wanted to burn him on it. Their intention was so obvious, however, that Ephialtes dodged their attacks and moved away from the pile and towards Hazel.

Hazel saw that she was in danger and tried to run away from the giant, but—was he _serious?_ Someone stop this monster! ARGH! I hated not being able to help her. Because damn, Ephialtes was a truly formidable fighter. He somehow managed to hold Jason and Frank at bay _and_ lunged at Hazel. My heart nearly stopped—or did it?—but at the last possible second Leo managed to nosedive his helicopter and hit the giant right in the side.

I was so relieved that Hazel was safe that it took me a moment to notice that Leo was stuck in the half-crushed flying machine. Ephialtes had landed right on the coal pile, yes, but also half on top of the rotor blades.

"Do it now!" Leo screamed from inside the cabin.

"No way!" Jason shouted. "Get out of—"

But Leo couldn't move. The giant tried to rise again, still slightly groggy from the impact it seemed, and was putting more and more weight on the helicopter. Leo howled in pain.

"I'm immune to fire. Do it now!" he repeated in a pained voice and through the cracked glass looked at Frank. "Or it will all have been in vain."

Frank did not react at first, but I could sense his emotions fighting inside him. Then, with a loud scream—no, a roar, really—the new praetor turned into a giant dragon, startling even Otis at the other end of the stadium. His belly glowed dark red as he inhaled and then, in one fluid motion, he shot a huge flash of flame towards Ephialtes.

The air shimmered with heat, and even though I knew I was dreaming, I felt like I was burning up as the flames engulfed the giant on the coals...and the helicopter, with Leo still inside.

I could see movement within the huge ball of fire, but then nothing else. Smoke hung thick in the air as the flames subsided. Ephialtes was gone. I felt grim satisfaction.

"Jason." Frank, in human form again, prompted the Roman.

Jason nodded solemnly and waved his hand through the air. Wind rushed through the stadium and took with it soot and dust from where the giant had been standing. There was not a single strand of purple hair left. Good news, really, but—

"Leo!" Hazel exclaimed as she ran towards the wreck of the helicopter.

"Don't touch it!" Jason stopped her. "It's still too hot. The metal is still glowing—"

"NOOOOO! You demigods have gone too far!" Otis roared as he saw that his twin was gone.

Blind with rage, he threw statues at whatever was moving, but especially set on destroying Frank and Jason. The brute force of his attack was too much for Piper and Percy, who were both thrown towards the far side of the stadium. Annabeth was trying to attack him out of the air with bombs and other explosives, but she only fuelled his anger. Frank and Jason were both holding their ground. Still, they barely managed to defend themselves.

All of a sudden, I heard a screeching noise like metal bending. Hazel! She had taken one of the crushed rotor blades of the helicopter and was prying open the deformed passenger door. It was a wonder that the helicopter had not melted down completely, and I was scared to see what she would find. I mean, Leo was a son of Hephaestus, yes, but _this_ had been dragon fire fuelled by Grecian coal. But then, I could not believe that he would have just burnt to ash, either. And I had not consciously felt his soul leaving for the Underworld, so—

"Leo!" she gasped as she yanked the door out of its hinges.

_Holy Hades,_ I swore as I saw the black bundle Hazel was lifting out of the charred helicopter wreck. Leo looked like a ball of black, bleeding flesh. From what I could see, he had tried to minimize the surface of skin exposed to the heat: He had stuck his head down the neckline of his shirt and pressed his hands in his armpits. He had drawn his knees up, covering his stomach and curled into the fetal position. I could not tear my eyes from his legs… It was gruesome. The flesh on his lower legs was burnt. There wasn't much skin left; I could even see the sick yellow-white of his bones in some places.

I swallowed thickly. I had seen ghosts who had been burnt alive at the stake as witches or devil worshippers. And Leo reminded me of them. The fire had eaten away the hair on his head where the fabric of his shirt hadn't managed to completely cover it. Along with that, the flesh of his neck was burnt severely, though not as much as his lower legs. But one thing I knew, despite all this: Leo Valdez's heart was still beating. Which was a miracle, really, but somehow he had pulled through. At least for now.

"We need help, someone, please!" Hazel shouted at no one in particular.

Jason and Frank were still going against Otis and couldn't react. Annabeth who had at some time got off of her helicopter was helping Percy up at the other end of the stadium and didn't hear her either. But Piper did. I admit that I had had some prejudices against her—Aphrodite girl and all that—but she had turned out to be a valuable fighter. Her gaze fell on Hazel's distraught face and the burnt figure at her feet. She ran towards them, murmured something I could not quite make out, but I could sense the magic in her words. She was repeating it over and over again, but nothing seemed to happen. To be honest, I expected Piper to flinch at the smell of burnt human flesh, to at least grimace at the sight of the bare bones in his legs. But she did neither.

Percy and Annabeth now both joined Jason and Frank on the ground and together they intensified their attack. They managed to drive Otis in the far corner of the stadium, widening the space between the giant and Leo, Piper, and Hazel.

"Leo, hold on," Hazel whispered, still cradling him to her body.

She did not lay him down, and I agreed with her reasoning: the open wounds had to be treated and the sandy ground would do him no good.

Suddenly, the sky got darker. Out of nowhere, I saw the Argo II come flying faster than I had ever seen the ship fly before. How did it even work, mechanically speaking? It went straight for the stadium and towards Hazel.

The others had also seen the ship's arrival. Their expressions soon turned from confusion and hope to dim disappointment, though, as it did not launch a full-out automatic attack on the giant, but instead dropped its anchor and went down.

The giant, on the other hand, was happy to see the ship.

"A ship in a stadium! That's a great idea if I've ever seen one. Now if you, son of Jupiter, were sacrificed, say, bound to the crow's nest, we would bring Earth, Sea and Sky together. Yes, yes, a nice touch for Gaia's victory!" Otis enthused.

Fortunately for Percy and the others, Otis was not good at concentrating on two things at once. That's why Annabeth managed to land a well-placed blow on the giant's leg.

"UGH!" Otis cried out.

Ichor was running down his snakes-for-feet, dripping into the sandy ground. It was not pretty. _Swoosh._ Frank's sword forced the giant to retreat several steps, putting the ship between my point of view so that I could no longer follow their progress.

At the same time, Piper pointed her finger at Hazel and Leo.

"Wait here," she told Hazel before sprinting on board the Argo II, clutching her dagger tight in her fist.

Not like Hazel had much of a choice. Leo might not look like much, but I had noticed that he was quite muscular, and thus heavier, than he appeared to be at first glance.

"Hey, Leo," Hazel said in a quivering voice. "The ship's here. We'll… we'll patch you up in no time."

Leo was still unconscious, though, and did not reply.

Piper reemerged, carrying a stretcher and a long pink sheet, presumably from her own bed.

"Put him on this," she instructed Hazel after having draped the sheet over the stretcher.

Hazel slowly lowered Leo down, but she didn't dare loosen the cramped position he was in.

"Hazel, please prepare a bucket of water and as many soft towels as you can find, as well as the first-aid-kit. Then come back," Piper ordered my sister.

She was surprisingly calm, and Hazel complied.

As soon as Hazel was out of sight, Piper got to work. She gently lowered the neckline of Leo's shirt and pulled his head free. I expected the worst: a face burnt beyond recognition. But instead Leo's face looked...absolutely normal. Either there had been some serious magic involved or he had been incredibly lucky. As Piper slowly lowered his head on the stretcher, I could see that not only his face seemed to be unaffected, but also the collarbone area. His arms from below the elbows, however, had suffered at least second-degree burns. The fine hairs on his arms were completely charred, and the skin was covered in blisters. Nothing compared to his legs, of course, but still, he would need some strong healing lotions to ease the pain coming from his arms. His hands that Piper had pulled from Leo's armpits looked fine again. It was strange. Why had some parts of his body not been affected at all while others had been burnt to the bone? His clothes had always looked normal, but, no, they couldn't have been after all. Industrial-strength inflammable fabrics maybe. Though really there must have been magic involved at some point. Magic from Hecate, or another sorceress.

"Hazel, help me carry him," Piper yelled after laying Leo down on the stretcher, the pink sheet now covering him from head to toe.

Hazel rushed down and together the carefully carried Leo on board. They still swayed a lot, but through it all, Leo remained unconscious.

They lowered him on deck where Hazel had placed a first-aid-kit, a bucket of water and several other things. Even Coach Hedge's baseball bat to…knock him out?

"Disinfection first," Piper murmured as she rummaged through the first-aid-kit. And then: "Hazel, can you get us some nectar and ambrosia? Take some of Jason's stash; he had a lot left last time I checked. It's in his bedside drawer."

As she went to fetch it, Piper took the large disinfectant bottle and sprayed it on what had remained of Leo's legs, then on his arms and finally on his neck. She also checked the skin beneath the hem of his trousers and shirt, but seemed to see nothing that concerned her.

"Feed him half a vial now. We'll see how it goes and give him the rest in smaller doses later," she instructed after Hazel returned.

"Do you think he'll survive?"

"I hope so. It's a little hard to tell, because we don't really know how much blood he has lost already. I think that the burns on his neck and his arms will heal eventually, as long as we can prevent an infection. I mean, ambrosia is practically magic in solid form, and those wounds aren't life-threatening as such. But I don't think there's anything we can do for his legs."

Hazel stared at her. "You want to amputate them?"

"It's not like I want to. But what's the alternative?" Piper said defensively. "Most of the muscles are gone! There's no way they'll grow back and he might die from blood poisoning or something. We'd just be doing him a favor if we cut the nerves and get it over with. Feed him a couple of drops again."

"You really think ambrosia and nectar won't be enough…but how do you know? I mean, you said they were 'magical'…" Hazel asked as she carefully tilted the vial.

Piper just looked at her and sighed. "I don't really know for sure, but I've had dreams. Bad dreams. Gaia takes great pleasure in showing me exactly how my friends from Camp Half-Blood die. I mean, the Apollo kids are great with their healing magic, but even they could do nothing when Travis, a son of Hermes, burnt his right arm. You know, he tried to rescue a daughter of Iris from the Big House, but he was too late… Anyway, Gaia made me watch how they took it off right from under the shoulder."

"That's horrible!"

Piper nodded. "Yes, but it was the only chance to prevent him from dying a gruesome death. She made me watch others dying as their limbs were eaten by infections, as they suffered from blood poisoning. What's a limb if you survive?"

"This is Leo we're talking about!"

Hazel was upset; I got that. She was totally out of her element, and apparently she cared for Leo a great deal. But Piper was right.

"Honestly, Hazel. If there's anyone who could invent fully functional metal legs, it's him. No, I've made up my mind. We have to get rid of the legs. But even that's not without risk, and I need your help. Infection is one thing, but there's also the blood loss. You don't happen to know any healing magic, do you?"

Hazel shook her head dejectedly. Next to the steering wheel several feet away, however, I saw something glowing at the mentioning of magic. It must be Leo's Archimedes Sphere.

"I'll get whatever we can use as tools. Can you look for more towels? But first spray the ones we have with the disinfection spray, okay?" Piper asked.

Hazel just nodded and went to work like she had accepted Piper's choice.

"We can do this," Piper tried to reassure her and gently squeezed her shoulder before vanishing behind a door.

Both were ignorant of the Archimedes Sphere. And while I was no expert in magic or any of Leo's machines in general, I knew that there was a reason for its glow. They had to see it!

_Hazel! Sister!_ I yelled in my dream. But of course she didn't hear me. I was just a spark of consciousness floating above her.

Still, I tried again. _Hazel! Look towards the steering wheel!_

If I had been healthy, it would be so easy to force myself to wake up and shadow travel right there! It was infuriating. It was not fair!

"I need your spatha," Piper said as she came back with yet more supplies in her hands.

Their purpose could not have been more obvious: scissors, nylon threats, ethanol, more bed sheets.

"My spatha? Oh, yes, right," Hazel said. "Let me disinfect it first."

All the while the Archimedes Sphere was still glowing faintly. But neither of them noticed! How could they not?

_The sphere, the sphere, THE SPHERE! _I yelled unheard.

"I'll bind his knees first. Maybe we have a chance of saving the first inch after the knee cap," Piper stated.

"I don't know if I can do it. I just—"

I desperately wanted to help them, but I just couldn't. Then suddenly out of nowhere the scene shifted, and I felt pain. So much pain. You'd think I'd have gotten used to it by now, but no. It doesn't work that way. This time, it felt like a thousand hot needles were piercing my flesh time and time again, like I was a giant voodoo doll in the hands of an unknown puppet master.

My eyes shot open, and I found myself in my room in my father's palace.

"So you've broken my mistress' hibernation spell." I heard the voice of one of my stepmother's handmaidens. "She gave me instructions on what to do in this situation. Please drink this."

My whole body was still aching, but the sensation of burning needles slowly faded. For a moment I felt wary about the fact that I was consuming something Persephone wanted me to drink, but then again, she had been helpful since my arrival. As I drank the jug of water, my mind seemed to clear. How long had it been since I arrived here from Block Island? Two days? Three? Had Reyna arrived safely at Camp Half-Blood?

"Now eat these seeds," the handmaiden ordered me. "My mistress grew the sunflowers specifically for you. They should bring some of your strength back."

I obliged, of course. I felt not the least bit hungry, but I knew that it was foolish to ignore a gift of an immortal, especially if it was your stepmother. The sunflower seeds tasted surprisingly pleasant, like summer and sunshine. And they did make me feel better. Not like I could get up or anything, but better.

"Now you're supposed to rest a couple more hours. Then my mistress will visit and tell you about your private audience. I'll help you fall asleep."

"No, thank you," I said, but she ignored me. Of course.

The handmaiden smiled and waved her hand through the air in a complicated motion. Immediately, my eyes fell shut and I started dreaming again.

It's not like you can control your dreams when you're a demigod. That's why I was part relieved, part anxious when I found myself back on the Argo II. Leo was still lying unconscious on the stretcher. Piper and Hazel, I was thankful to see, were examining the Archimedes Sphere.

"Do what you did with Festus!" Hazel encouraged Piper. "The crystal, it's no ordinary gemstone. It's some kind of quartz variety, but there's magic laced within, I can sense it. Please, Piper, try again," she pleaded.

"Fine, I'll give it another go. But just in case it doesn't work, please disinfect his wounds again. And if you feel confident, smear the white paste from the first-aid-kit on his arms and then bandage them, okay?"

Hazel nodded, and Piper turned back to the Sphere. She jutted her jaw forwards in concentration and laid her hands on the side of the metal globe.

"You want to help Leo, I can feel it. Reveal your secret. Give us whatever will help him. Please," Piper pleaded.

Whatever she had tried, it didn't seem to work. The Sphere still glowed softly, but it had not been properly activated. She had to try harder.

"We need you. Leo needs you. Come on, there's so much he wanted to do with you. He took great care of you. He always tried to fix you. Repay him now."

I held my breath as the Sphere glowed brighter. _Just a little more, Piper. You can do it!_

"He's hurt. Help him. Like he helped you! You're so important to him. I think he loves you. Save him, I know—"

Suddenly the scene was drowned in a dazzling white light that blinded not only me, but also Piper and even Otis and the others; I could tell by the lack of fighting noise that came from the other side of the ship.

Through the white light I could make out a figure rising from a crouch right next to the Sphere. A humanoid monster? It was hard to tell. As the light got slightly less bright, I could make out more details. It was a young woman in blue jeans and a plain beige shirt with long hair tied up in a bun at the top of her head. No weapons as far as I could see. She went straight towards Leo. I didn't know for sure that she meant no evil, but…I didn't think it likely just judging from her appearance. She looked concerned and apprehensive, but also determined.

"Who are you? What are you doing?" Hazel asked the newcomer.

The woman, however, ignored her and knelt down next to Leo. Then she started to sing in a language so ancient that I did not understand a single word. The effect, however, was immediate. The giant howled in pain; I imagined him putting his hands over his ears, while Piper and Hazel and most likely the other demigods collapsed on the ground. The woman was emitting a white mist that wrapped itself around Leo like a blanket. Some misty strands also touched the others.

There was some serious magic going on as the woman—a sorceress, obviously—continued to chant. Drops of sweats were starting to form on her forehead. Her dark eyes were shut tight in concentration.

Suddenly, Piper gasped audibly as a white strand wound around the bandage of her arm. In the distance, Otis was still rolling on the ground howling in pain, but I also heard Jason or maybe Percy take a loud shuddering breath. All of a sudden, Leo began to moan loudly. I was unsure whether to feel relieved that he was nearing consciousness or to feel pity for him; those wounds must hurt like the water of the Phlegethon.

"Hold on, Leo," the sorceress was muttering through clenched teeth. The white mist was swirling around him faster and faster.

Until it abruptly stopped.

"Leo!" Hazel called out. She still looked slightly dizzy, but she sprinted to him quickly and knelt beside him.

Leo was still groaning in pain, but—okay, I had apparently just witnessed a miracle. Leo's legs, which had been a mess of burnt flesh and sinews, looked almost whole now! Scarred, yes, but there were muscles where muscles were supposed to be and even the small hairs on his shin had grown back. I could honestly say that I had never seen anything like it.

"I smell Titan blood!" Otis roared suddenly. _Stamp, stamp, stamp._

"Oh, no," the sorceress sighed, but jumped down from the deck of the ship. In my dream, I followed behind. She smelled of cinnamon and soil. And she had several birthmarks on her neck. The sort of odd things you notice in dream visions.

"Otis, I suppose. You're one of Gaia's little minions?" she asked casually, though she was still breathing heavily, supposedly from the exertion of the magical healing.

"I am not little!" Otis bellowed. "I am a Gigantes, born to destroy the gods and all who side with them. What are you doing here, daughter of Atlas? We do not need Titans for our great victory!"

"Calypso!" Percy blurted out in his very own mixture of incredulousness and giddy excitement.

But that did explain a lot. The sorceress from Ogygia. Apparently, Percy had not been the only one of the seven that had paid her a visit.

"I am Calypso, daughter of Atlas and Tethys, a greater sorceress than Circe herself. And I chose to oppose you and your mother. I side with the gods, and I will help these demigods," she stated formally.

"She is your father's mother, but still you go against her. A traitor is what you are! I will crush you and spill your blood as well!" Otis shouted angrily.

"No! We'll destroy you together!" Percy jumped in.

How very unsurprising.

And then they started their attack.

Percy and Jason were leading the assault, but they were not the ones that caused the most damage. Annabeth went for the giant's knees and thighs with her Underworld sword, and Piper's dagger Katropis aimed for his arteries. It was strange how little you learnt about human physiology at Camp Half-Blood's sword training sessions, but now I saw that Piper must obviously have had some kind of education in this field. It was incredibly effective. Hazel and Frank were also working brilliantly as a team. Frank turned into some kind of bigger flying animal at random intervals and carried Hazel into the air. When the others distracted the giant, he let her drop onto the giant's back. Hazel went straight for the head, and several wounds on his neck were bleeding profusely. Calypso was the most fascinating to watch, probably because I had never seen a sorceress in combat. She was carrying a small knife that I had not seen before but didn't really use it; instead, she muttered charms and curses and hurled white balls of lightning at the giant, crying, "For the Olympians!"

"You nasty demigods! It's time to destroy you once and for all. Gaia will triumph!" Otis howled, but it was obvious that he was fighting a losing battle.

They might have continued for a minute or an hour, I didn't know. Piper, who rammed Katropis through the giant's heart, dealt the final blow. And then, _whoosh:_ the giant turned to yellow dust.

"We made it!" Percy cheered loudly, but Jason stopped him with a motion of his hand.

"Let's scatter the dust first. Hazel?"

My sister nodded and I felt kind of proud when she promptly opened up a rift in the soil next to her feet. Jason manipulated the winds and forced some of the dust down the rift, which Hazel then closed with a decisive snap of her fingers. The other dust particles were then consumed by a mini tornado that Jason sent down the hill and throughout Athens to get rid of the rest of the giant's essence.

They had really done it.

"Two giants down, an unknown number of more giants to come," Annabeth grinned wearily.

She looked tired. Well, they all did. Together, they went back on top of the Argo II, and my dream-self trotted behind.

"I need some food first," Percy said as he went on deck.

"Well that's a surprise," Annabeth replied half-mockingly.

"Let's go to the meeting room and discuss our next steps," Jason suggested. "Do you think we can move Leo to the stretcher, Lady Calypso?"

She smiled an enigmatic smile, which left Jason dazzled. _Come on._

"Just Calypso is fine. And yes, I think we can move him," she said, and Annabeth and Percy went to carry him to the meeting room.

"I have seen you in the mist, Jason Grace, and your companion Piper. And Percy and Annabeth Chase. And also a young man named Nico, but he is not here, is he?"

_Me?_

"He's my brother, but he got lost. I'm Hazel Levesque," Hazel said inclining her head slightly.

She looked a little sad, but not hopeless. I assumed she knew I was temporarily stuck in the Underworld, but alive. We'd see each other again.

"Nice to meet you, Hazel. I feel strong magic flowing through your veins. And you, shapeshifter?"

"My name is Frank Zhang, son of Mars," he said.

Calypso nodded knowingly, and they all went inside the meeting room and sat down. Annabeth distributed soda and sandwiches.

"A son of Mars, a daughter of Pluto, a child of Aphrodite and one of Jupiter himself. A son of Poseidon and a daughter of Athena. Clearly, the times have changed," Calypso said. "And a son of Hephaestus," she smiled.

At that, Leo on his stretcher front of the table started to move. Calypso was with him right away and started chanting again.

"More nectar," she told Piper, who already had a vial in her hand, which she gave to the sorceress.

As the third drop hit Leo's tongue, his eyes shot open.

"It's all right, it's okay," Calypso murmured. Leo smiled.

"So I died then. Are you an angel, Calypso?" he asked, his voice hoarse and feeble.

It would have been an embarrassing display of emotion if not for the fact that he had indeed very nearly died.

"No, Leo, I'm right here. You survived. It's okay," she said.

"But you were on Ogygia, how—"

"I charmspoke the Archimedes Sphere. And I think my mum helped me. The words just came out, and suddenly the crystal was glowing brightly," Piper explained.

"Piper! And Jason, Hazel... Wow, guys, we're all alive!" Leo laughed disbelievingly.

"Yes, and thanks to Calypso's magic, totally healthy. You might have a couple of scars more, but she saved your legs, you know," Hazel said.

"You did?" Leo asked Calypso and as she wordlessly nodded he added, "I think you deserve a thank you-kiss."

He smirked at her with a mix of cheekiness and uncertainty that was so very Leo. Calypso smiled and then leaned down to kiss him directly. On. The. Lips. Coach Hedge, bless his soul, would have surely screamed murder. But Leo turned bright red, and that was almost adorable.

Hazel gasped and Frank turned around completely. Jason, however, cat-called and laughed. "I'm really happy for you guys, but keep it away from the innocent eyes."

"That rhymed!" Percy commented, also smiling annoyingly brightly.

There were a couple more congratulations, but Leo's face fell quickly after Calypso helped him up and sat him down next to her.

"It's great that you're all alive and well, and it's fantastic that you're here," Leo addressed Calypso, "but I had some bad dreams. Very bad dreams. What time is it now? When is the Feast of Spes, exactly?"

"Tomorrow. The festivities traditionally start at sunset. And it's seven pm now," Annabeth answered.

"I dreamt of the giants. Gaia talked to me. She told me that three of her sons would arrive in Athens tomorrow at sunrise."

"Three, wow, that's not good news. Has she said who, exactly?" Annabeth asked.

Leo swallowed and averted his gaze. "The first one will be Polybotes, bane of Poseidon. She showed me how he took shortcut after shortcut just to get here faster. He is focused on you, Percy."

"You don't say," Percy muttered.

"But that's not all," Leo continued, unfazed. "The other two are Alcyoneus and Porphyrion. Alcyoneus is a little slower, but they're bringing loads of minor monsters with them. In other words, we're expecting an army and the banes of the Big Three."


	12. Chapter 12: Reyna

**Chapter 12: Reyna**

"Octavian, you _coward_!"

I seethed as I sprinted after him. The little rat had seen that our legionnaires were no match against the giant and his army of monsters and had decided to flee toward the relative security the Athena Parthenos provided. It still glowed faintly and somehow repelled any monsters that wandered into its vicinity. I only say its protection was _relative_ because _I_ was still able to follow him.

"Octavian! Go back to the legion! _Now_!" I ordered him, but he vanished behind the statue.

People were screaming below. The giant stayed on the eastern side of the river, focusing his attacks on the twelfth legion. I couldn't watch too closely as I saw my friends and comrades fall. On the other side of the river, the Greeks were shooting arrows and attacking stray monsters, but they didn't interfere directly.

"It's too late," Octavian's voice came from behind the statue. "I've made a mistake."

I turned around the statue's corner and saw him sitting on the ground, head in his hands. He looked troubled. Well, he _was_ in trouble. I was so furious I could have just chopped his head off right then and there!

"Yeah, you heard right, I made a mistake. And I can't fix it anymore," he said.

And he looked so sad, I thought I had never seen him like this before. Which did not mean I was any less angry.

"Whatever you did, sulking here and leaving the legion to die is not going to solve anything. Get up and fight!"

"All is lost, already," he said desperately. "Don't you see? I've done everything wrong! I thought leading the legion to triumph would make me greater than all of you together. That I would become not only praetor but emperor! That's why I went against your orders, faked the auguries and even went through with the bloody decimation. I never thought there would be a thrice-damned giant!"

He was pathetic. Unfortunately, Octavian was too important, could influence too many people for me to ignore him.

"Yes, you screwed up. But we can still turn the tide! Convince the others to support the gift of the Athena Parthenos and we might be able to heal the gods of their split personality problem. And even if they don't help us, we can fight together with the Greeks. They've got some extraordinary fighters; together we could slay this giant and his monsters!"

Octavian still looked defeated, but nevertheless he raised his hand and spoke: "I support the gift of the Athena Parthenos to the Greeks." The statue glowed brightly for a moment, but nothing else happened.

"It's too late, I told you. In order to defeat a giant at least one hero and one god or goddess must fight together. Plus, I'm not sure about the whole split personality thing anyway. But even if I thought convincing the legion to support the gift would help us, I couldn't do that, because they are too busy surviving!"

He tore several strands of his blond hair out and continued. "We can't defeat the giant anyway because they are no gods around to help! And before you ask: I did pray to Apollo, but to no avail."

I did not understand the man. What kind of leader just gave up?

"You have to try! Please, Octavian, let's go down and work together. I will distract the giant and you can convince the legionnaires. If they hear you asking for support, that might be enough! We don't need a big declaration, just a change of heart. Come on, Octavian. We can still fix this," I pleaded with him.

And he got up! I thought I had persuaded him, but suddenly he said, "If I die, I'll die with my dignity intact." And with that, he hit me with his bare fist against the temple. I blacked out right away.

Which meant that I started to have those dream visions again. And though I was furious at Octavian, I tried to concentrate and thought, _Show me Nico di Angelo. Show me Nico di Angelo NOW_. But instead I found myself on the ship that had brought war upon us, the Argo II.

Percy was sitting next to Annabeth Chase, the daughter of Athena, whom I had learnt to respect. I still found her ancestry mildly disturbing, but I had acknowledged that she was an excellent strategist and brave fighter.

"Do you think we made the right choice, coming here on the Acropolis?" Percy asked her.

Annabeth scowled at him and replied, "I wouldn't have led us here otherwise, Seaweed Bain. It's the location that makes most sense, really. No place in Athens is more symbolic for the Olympians. The Erechtheum is consecrated to Athena and Poseidon, there's the Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus and the remains of the Temple Athena Nike."

"I get that, really, I do. But what about a temple of Hades or something?"

"Hades has never been the most popular god, you know that," Annabeth whispered, probably because she did not want to be overheard by Hazel, who was talking animatedly to a girl I had not seen before.

She thought for a moment. "We might find small statues of him in gardens nearby or maybe in an old cemetery. I mean, I know that there is this huge cemetery of Athens near the stadium. But it's not that old and totally Christian, so I don't think Alcyoneus would be particularly drawn to it..."

She stopped and then looked directly into Percy's eyes.

"Percy you're brilliant! Of course, it's the Kerameikos!"

Percy looked as puzzled as I felt. What did ceramics have to do with Lord Pluto?

Annabeth rolled her eyes at him, but she smiled as she explained, "The Kerameikos is the old necropolis of Athens and it's very close to the Acropolis. Alcyoneus will definitely go through there. So that's another reason why I think the Acropolis is our best bet."

"Then we have all three of them covered. I'm convinced."

Annabeth smiled.

"But for now… we just stay here and wait for them to arrive? I mean that's okay with me, we need the rest anyway," Percy said.

"We can use the time to prepare and rest. But another thing, Percy. I wanted to talk to you about Calypso," Annabeth said and I saw Percy's eyes widening in slight panic.

_Hold on; the sorceress Calypso?_ I had spent most of my childhood on Circe's island so I had heard lots of stories about her. Her healing abilities were legendary and though Circe herself had always said that she was a 'tame sorceress', her offensive spells were supposedly very powerful as well.

"Don't look at me like that, you dork. I know you felt something for her on her island, but you came back to me. Besides, I trust you, you know."

She gave him a quick kiss and continued. "But I wanted to hear your opinion. Do you think we managed to defeat Otis because she was helping? I mean, she's the daughter of a Titan and not a god, so that would speak against it, but she said 'For the Olympians,' so maybe her being on our side counts?"

Percy smiled uncertainly. "It's possible, yeah. And if we have to defeat three giants, that might be the help we need. But I think it's just as possible that your first theory was right and Piper activating Leo's Sphere did the trick."

They knew that three giants were coming for them. How did they stay so calm when one giant was enough to kill my whole legion?

Annabeth frowned. "I hate not knowing exactly what the decisive factor was, but if Persephone won't tell us, there's little we can do about it. Anyway, we'll have to think of a good plan to defeat the three giants."

"Piece of blue cake. We'll think of something," Percy smiled and hugged her.

_Nice having someone at your side to cheer you up_, I thought.

Then suddenly, the scene shifted.

I was inside Lord Pluto's throne room. That was obvious: the king of the Underworld himself sat on his dark throne. He was clad all in black; he wore a black suit, a black tie, and a black dress shirt. Each time I blinked, however, a black silk robe appeared and disappeared over his suit. Split-personality problem, I saw what Nico had meant when he had first told me about it. His skin was nearly albino white, while his shoulder-length hair matched the darkness of his suit. In his right hand he held an imposing sword that seemed to be made of Stygian iron, just like Nico's. My heart jumped a little in relief as I saw Nico himself kneeling before the throne. The torches burning all around illuminated his face and though he still looked a little sick and weak, he was no longer a walking corpse. A goddess I presumed to be Lady Proserpine stood to his right, her hand placed on his shoulder. She was striking with her long, vibrant dress and flowing hair.

"Dear husband, I have brought forward your only living demigod son, Nico di Angelo. He is embarking on a dangerous mission and humbly asks for your blessing," she said smiling winningly.

Lord Pluto or Lord Hades…I'd just call him Lord Pluto, scowled and eyed Nico up and down.

"Your face looks familiar, but surely you are not my son. What is this, wife? Do you try to trick me again?" He addressed Lady Proserpine grimly.

She flinched but stood her ground.

"This is your son, my husband. And he plans to fight the Gigantes Alcyoneus!"

At the mentioning of the name of the giant, Lord Pluto's face turned slightly darker.

"Ah, that upstart who thinks he can oppose me! He is nothing; just a nobody who strives for my power. But why is he no longer in Tartarus? He must have escaped through the Doors of Death. There is so much to do, still…"

"Your son is willing to take on Alcyoneus, but you know that he needs your blessing. Your powers alone can ensure his triumph!" Lady Proserpine pleaded.

Lord Pluto fixed his gaze on Nico, prostrated at his feet, who returned his stare, unflinching.

"He does not look like much, that's true. Surely not like a hero who can take on a Gigantes. But you gave him your blessing, wife. Why is that?" he asked.

Lady Proserpine rolled her eyes in a decidedly unladylike manner. "Because he needs whatever help he can get! Please, my love. His motives are pure. But he needs your powers to have a chance."

He stared at the both of them for a moment, then said, "I will think about it."

Lady Proserpine threw her hands in the air in exasperation, then Nico spoke up. "Father. I seek no fame. I will fight Alcyoneus in your name. Not only Alcyoneus. I will try my best to defeat Porphyrion and Polybotes as well. Your name will be remembered and your role in their defeat. But I don't have much time left. Please, father, _please_."

Lord Pluto remained silent.


	13. Chapter 13: Percy

**Chapter 13: Percy**

There were very few activities I liked less than waiting for my imminent doom. I was no strategic planner; I had no machines to prepare or surroundings to scout—except for water supplies, but the sea was about 3.1689 miles away, too far to be of use. Annabeth had told me that I was to focus on Porphyrion. Which made sense, power-wise, because the other giant, Polybotes, was created to oppose my dad. Unfortunately, though, Leo was sure that Polybotes wanted my blood above anyone else's, making me his No. 1 target. And we were still unsure about whether or not Calypso's help would be enough to fulfill the 'one god or goddess' requirement to defeat giants.

Waiting left me far too much time to imagine worst-case scenarios in my head—Annabeth could die, Gaia could rise, the world as we knew it could end in _less than twenty-four hours_, and Annabeth could die! I had never really been afraid of dying myself, but ever since Tartarus I couldn't imagine living a single heartbeat without her.

It was nearing 4:30 a.m. The sun would rise in less than two hours, but so far the night had been pitch black. I was supposed to wake up Hazel and Jason to cover the last shift, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I was wide awake anyway, and I knew that they needed their rest.

Slowly, I made my way over to the lee side of the ship. Suddenly, I heard a sound behind me. Almost instinctively, I uncapped my sword and slashed it around in a 180°-movement.

"Whoa, there!" Jason exclaimed as he stumbled backwards. "I didn't mean to startle you, but it's 4:30, so I thought you'd be expecting me."

"Yeah right, sorry," I said. "Nothing to report, though. No giants, no monsters, no mortals, nothing."

Jason shrugged. "Well, that's good, right? Will you wake Hazel, or shall I?"

I considered it for a moment, but then shook my head. "Nah, it's okay. I'll take the last shift and we let her sleep. I won't be able to get any more sleep anyway."

"Nervous?" he asked.

"Aren't you?"

There was too little light to make out his face, but I could sense him tensing. I hadn't meant it as a challenge, but ever since Kansas, Jason had been wary around me. But then he relaxed again.

"Actually, yes. Quite a bit. I worry about Porphyrion."

"You've fought him before and won. You know what you're up against," I pointed out.

Jason stopped to check the knots securing the sails before he answered. "Yes, I do, but it doesn't help. Not really."

"Mhmm," I hummed in agreement, trying not to sound either too pitying or too understanding.

"But Annabeth said that maybe you stand a chance. Porphyrion isn't used to water. Have you thought about summoning ground water?" he asked.

"Hazel talked to me about it. She said she'd create underground tunnels to let the water flow. But to be honest, there's just not much water around here. Greece is so dry, especially in the summer, it's a miracle anything grows here at all."

"I bet that's one of the reasons the Earth Lady picked the Feast of Spes as her resurrection date. Because I've been thinking, if you could submerge a giant in water and I could direct a lightning bolt at it, we'd probably deal a lot of damage."

I chuckled. "You sound like Nico and his Mythomagic cards, you know."

"There's nothing wrong about that game," Jason retorted. "It's actually really good for strategic thinking!"

And there he was, getting all defensive again.

"I don't know how to play, but I'm sure you're right," I tried to appease him. "And I like the lightning-bolt-water-fusion-idea. We could try it on Alcyoneus."

"Alcyoneus is mine," a third voice suddenly piped up from right beside me.

"Hazel! Where'd you come from?" Jason asked, startled.

She shrugged slightly. "I've been practicing shadow travel. And though it still doesn't work completely, at least I manage to blend with the shadows from time to time."

"A daughter of Pluto in stealth mode? Way to go!" I praised her. "That might come in really handy one of these days."

"Maybe, maybe not. We'll see in another hour or so," she said, before turning to me. "Percy, I dreamt of my stepmother again. I had a hard time focusing on what she was saying, because, well, I think we-all-know-who was interfering. But she said that you should kill Polybotes first. I didn't hear why or anything, but that much was clear."

"Are you sure about that?" Jason asked doubtful. "Percy and I just discussed it and we both think we shouldn't go against the bane of our respective parent."

"But she helped us before," I pointed out. "On the other hand—"

_RING DING DING DING_, Festus' alarms blared, nearly blasting my ears off.

It looked like the giants were arriving early, which wasn't very considerate of them. Jason and I went to the cabins to get the others, but we were only halfway there when Annabeth, Frank, Leo and Calypso, and Piper sprinted towards us. Like me, all of them had decided to sleep in their battle clothes, or rather, normal street clothes, since we had no armor to speak of. Fighting giants in jeans and shirts was at least slightly more dignified than fighting in pajamas.

"It's not the giants yet, guys," Leo informed us. "That's the sound of aerial attack. It's probably their vanguard."

When it came to predicting attacks, we had all learnt to trust Leo, and sure enough, not a minute passed before we could see dark shapes circling above us. The sun was only just rising above the mountains, so it was hard to make out any distinct features. Frank recognized them anyway, though.

"Vultures…" he whispered.

But Annabeth shook her head. "Not just any vultures. See the huge one in the middle? That's Ethon, the eagle that used to feed on the liver of Prometheus."

The thing is, vultures apparently have good hearing and as Annabeth said 'Prometheus,' the birds went stir-crazy.

Vultures darted down at us left and right. Annabeth and I worked well together—we stood back to back so that each of us could concentrate on striking down as many birds as possible. Fighting with her had never felt more natural. I anticipated her movements; she sensed when I was about to strike. It was _good_.

I had just chopped one ugly vulture's head off when I heard Hazel scream out in pain. One of the vultures had managed to hit her head with its sharp beak. The wound was bleeding profusely, soaking her curls and shirt.

Calypso was with her right away, chanting something in a language I didn't know. Frank, upon seeing that his girlfriend was being taken care of, doubled his efforts. Even though I knew what he was capable of, it still blew my mind that the formerly insecure Canadian had turned into such a fighting machine!

"Take that!" Frank shouted as he took an arrow out of his quiver and shot straight through a vulture's heart.

Jason had opted to stay on the ground, shooting short-distance lightning bolts at any bird that came close. The air smelled like chicken nuggets. My stomach rumbled.

Piper wielded her bronze sword next to me. She was manipulating the Mist as she fought, luring the bird into misjudging her exact position and then bringing down the blade of her sword.

Leo's fighting technique was, as always, unique. He had dug up the mini-automatons he had used to disable the traps in front of the stadium. He took them one by one and threw the insect-like machines at the vultures. He had good aim, and each of them caught into the feathers of their targets. On his command, they drove their pincers into the birds' flesh. Either the 'infected' bird then crashed quickly, or it lost its aim and became an easy target for Frank's arrows.

"Why are there so many?" I asked Annabeth behind me.

"They want to weaken us before the giants come, of course. Drain some of our strength," she said between clenched teeth.

She was probably right. The vultures weren't major monsters, like a manticore or the Nemean Lion, but we still had to defeat _all_ of them.

After Annabeth and I had turned another dozen or so birds into monster dust, Hazel joined us again.

"Can you aim for the big one?" I heard Hazel ask Frank.

"I tried to several times already but that thing is _fast. _Besides, it hasn't attacked yet," he answered.

"Let's hope it stays that way," Hazel murmured.

Suddenly, I heard the _rat-a-tat-tat_ sound of a machine gun_. Hold on... _I looked around to see where the sound was coming form and yes, there was Leo, holding a bloody machine gun. Not just any machine gun, either, but one with celestial bronze bullets, given the fact that he was shooting down vultures left and right.

"Ha! Nothing beats the sweet smell of gunpowder in the morning!" Leo shouted as two more birds turned to dust.

He reminded me of that Rambo movie, albeit a scrawnier version. He'd even bound a strip of cloth around his head to keep his hair out of the way.

_Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat_. It took him no longer than another ten seconds to shoot down the last of the vultures. Except for Ethon, who was still circling high in the air.

"That was quite impressive." Calypso was the first to find her voice after his display of most effective monster slaying. Leo beamed.

"Trying my best, my lady," he winked. "But that super-sized vulture is still out of reach. Piper, you don't think you could get it to fly lower?"

"I'll try," Piper said, tilting her head up. "Mr. Vulture, can you hear me?"

"His name is Ethon," Annabeth supplied.

"Oh, right," she said. "Mr. Ethon! Wouldn't you like to come down to us? We have sandwiches and water."

And it looked like it worked. The vulture was still flying in circles but got lower and lower, making strange bird-noises. As it descended, I could make out more details. It was huge, with a wingspan of at least nine feet. Its wings were dark grey, and its eyes glowed amber brown. It was majestic, in a monster-like way.

"Don't kill it," Piper breathed. She stared at it, mesmerized.

"Uh, Piper, you know that if we don't kill it, it will probably kill us, right?" I asked her.

To my surprise, Frank shook his head.

"She's right. It doesn't want to attack us," he said.

"So you speak vulture now without ever having changed into one, big man?" Leo asked incredulously.

But Frank just smiled. "It's not just any bird, it's–"

_I am Ethon, an eagle of Lord Zeus himself,_ the bird said.

Well, I say _said_, but really I had no idea how it was communicating. It was more like the words appeared in my brain without going through my ears first.

"What do you want?" Annabeth asked as it finally landed on deck of the Argo II.

_My brothers and sisters have fallen under the spell of the Earth Mother and lie now defeated as dust under your feet. I had to join them, but it was never my intention to side with the Gigantes. I fly with the gods, and I have chosen to take one of you into battle._

"That's kind of you, but how do we know that this isn't an elaborate ruse to get behind our backs and kill us?" Annabeth asked.

She always asked the right questions.

_Child of Athena, I know of your journey and how you saved the Athena Parthenos. But you are up against three Gigantes, not only Porphyrion and Polybotes, but also Alcyoneus. They are strong in their elements, and the ground is helping them. The son of Mars and Jupiter alone will not suffice to defeat them. You need aerial support, which I can provide._

"He's telling the truth," Calypso suddenly said. "Ethon is bound to the gods, the same as I am. And I sense no lies. We can trust him."

_Daughter of the Titans, I wouldn't have expected you here_, Ethon acknowledged Calypso. _But yes, we are in a similar situation. We choose to take an active role and to defend the world we have come to appreciate. I will go against the Gigantes with or without you, but I am offering my help._

"Well, we need all the help we can get," Jason mused.

Annabeth finally nodded as well. "All right. We choose to trust you."

Piper stepped forward. "And I ask for the favor to ride on your wings into battle."

I was startled. Piper? Piper wanted to ride this huge monster against the giants?

"Piper, please," Jason muttered. "Let me go with him instead, it's too dangerous."

But she shook her head vigorously. "I've seen it in Katropis. Me sitting between his wings, fighting the giants. It's what I'm meant to do!"

_I am willing to take the girl, _Ethon intercepted, and it seemed like he was smiling. Though how a freaking vulture could smile was beyond me.

_ROOARRRRRRR!_

I froze on the spot as I heard the giants approaching.

_UARGGGGH!_

Yes, two of them already. Damn.

"Let's go down!" Annabeth ordered. "Everyone take your weapons, grab a sandwich if you have to, and don't forget your nectar vials."

We left the ship and split up the way Annabeth had told us to yesterday. Annabeth and I headed west to fight against Porphyrion. Hazel went with us—though she complained that I should change the strategy and go against Polybotes. Still, I thought that Annabeth's logic made sense. That left Polybotes for Leo, Calypso, Jason and Piper. Speaking of Piper…

"Jason Grace, I appreciate your concern, I really do. But I know what I'm doing. And I don't need your permission to do it," Piper said as she mounted the giant eagle and took off.

Jason looked at her with disapproval, but really, he should know that neither of us stood a chance against our respective girlfriends when they were determined to do something.

We barely had time to wish each other good luck as the giants stormed up on the Parthenon.

"PERCY JACKSON" Polybotes rumbled as he saw me.

He didn't look any different than the last time I had blasted him to pieces. He was still thirty feet tall, still had hideous reptilian legs and basilisks braided in his tangled green hair. His blue-green armor looked slightly shinier, though, and the trident in his right hand glowed more brightly. Just two or three steps behind him, Porphyrion followed. He was decidedly taller than his brother but just as ugly. Like Polybotes, he had reptilian legs and green hair, though instead of basilisks his choice of hair jewelry seemed to be used weapons. What really unnerved me about him where his white eyes, though. And the glowing spear. Yeah, definitely the spear.

"They haven't come alone," Annabeth whispered to my right, and I could see immediately that she was correct. As the giants came up the hill, an army of two or even three hundred minor monsters trailed behind them. Well, not quite so minor, actually. I could see dracanae, more basilisks, gorgons (I groaned inwardly), storm spirits and regular animals that were only identifiable as monsters due to their glowing red eyes.

Hazel attacked first, opening a rift before Polybotes' feet and making him stumble.

This was Jason's and Piper's cue; they attacked right away. Jason was really quick with his sword, but Polybotes was also very agile. He swung his trident at him and nearly impaled him right then and there. Calypso and Leo threw magical screwdrivers and other tools at him, cutting his armor but not doing much damage otherwise.

"Leave the son of Jupiter for me!" Porphyrion bellowed as he caught up.

Annabeth looked at me, and together we ran towards him.

"Hey, you ugly excuse for a giant," I taunted him. "You're late! Nothing's prepared; you're doing a lousy job at making your mother feel welcome!"

"Ha!" Porphyrion roared. "The son of Poseidon. My brothers Otis and Ephialtes have already prepared the stadium. Gaia has decided that we will shed your blood there. But it hasn't got to be _yours_. Maybe we'll just take that tiny son of Hephaestus! I will wring him out nicely to get us enough blood. Ha ha ha!"

I tried to use his boasting to my advantage, but he mirrored my attack so that I was unable to land a blow.

"Nothing is prepared!" Annabeth shouted. "Your giant brothers have gone back to Tartarus. You'd better follow them and ask for ideas for next time!"

Porphyrion harrumphed, apparently a bit miffed at hearing about his brothers' demise.

"It doesn't matter! We don't need decorations. We only need demigod blood, and we will have it!"

With that, he lunged at us and tried to pierce Annabeth with his spear. Hazel went going for his reptilian legs, but she only inflicted minor flesh wounds.

"You demigods are the scum of the earth! I will crush you all. I will rip your limbs from your bodies, I will bite your heads off, I will—"

I tuned him out. It wasn't like he had anything interesting to say, so I focused on inflicting wounds.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Frank—currently in ferret form—chasing basilisks and clawing them to dust. I trusted him to keep the minor monsters at bay. If it weren't for him, I was unsure if we would have been able to focus on the giants at all. There were just too many of them, but they didn't expect an animal to attack them, so that was good for us. Besides, it was Frank we were talking about.

But even Frank could do little against the venti. They appeared in the form of horse-shaped storm clouds and crackled with electricity. Worst of all, they were intangible, which meant that you couldn't easily wound them. They, on the other hand, could blow you aside like a sheet of paper, and more than once they very nearly forced me into striking-distance of Porphyrion's spear. And if you got too close to them, the experience was quite literally shocking.

No reason to give up, though. I looked at Annabeth and knew that we had had the same idea: attacking from opposite angles. It meant giving up the chance of covering each other's backs, but it had the advantage that one of us was always out of Porphyrion's sight. Hazel was working her underground magic, and created a mix of real and illusionary rifts between the giant's legs. She also created dozens of Mist-basilisks, some of which she sent towards Polybotes. That was a really clever idea, because Polybotes, who was still fighting Piper, Jason, Leo, and Calypso, stopped shaking his head and releasing more basilisks at every turn.

"You demigods will perish!" Porphyrion shouted as he span around 180 degrees considerably faster than I had thought possible.

I admit it; he surprised me. That's why I had no other choice but to jump backwards quickly. Unfortunately, this brought me full force against the stormy hooves of one of the storm spirits.

_CRACK!_ A high voltage bolt shot through my body and yanked me back several feet. I pressed my eyes shut as the pain tried to consume me. It felt like my back was on fire, and the stench of burnt hair and flesh made me want to vomit. I couldn't move; every muscle in my body was contracting. Like a leg cramp, just in every single muscle fiber.

I was absolutely defenseless as I lay bundled on the ground, but no monster came. I tried opening my eyes, but couldn't. But I heard them: the battle cries of the giants, the cries of pain of monsters vanquished, the low clanking of celestial bronze, the higher pitch of Imperial gold as it crunched through giant-made armor and through all of this the voices of my friends. Jason was shouting something, as was Piper, though I couldn't make out any words. Annabeth hissed like she did when she had hit her aim—_yeah!_—and Leo threw colorful insults at the giants. Calypso chanted aggressively. I didn't know how else to describe it.

I tried to blink, but stopped the attempt right away. Even my eyelids seemed to be cramped shut.

I didn't like lying there like that. Not at all. But as long as no one fed me nectar, I had no choice. I concentrated on my breathing. Deep breaths that hurt my ribs but also filled my lungs with fresh air. I felt the air beneath my fingers and back. I had never really liked soil or anything like that. Water was my element, though Annabeth had told me more than once that Poseidon was more than only the god of the sea. I couldn't help it. Water called to me, even the water I could sense flowing many feet below me. The earth shook slightly. No, I probably only imagined that. _Or not_, I thought as the ground shook again.

_Hazel's doing, _I realized. She had said that she would break the ground to let the ground water reach me. I could sense it. I could almost taste it! But I had to call for it.

I tried to, but I couldn't. Not in my current state. I was closer to being a sack of potatoes than a demigod.

Instead, I tried opening my eyes again. The light was so bright I could not take the sensory overload and closed them again. I was basically blind and crippled, but breathing was a little easier now, so I had that going for me.

"Percy, watch out!" Leo shouted.

I sensed Polybotes' foot more than I could see it; my eyes were still closed, after all.

_ROLL_! I urged my body, but it was as useless as before. I became aware of the lack of light as Polybotes positioned his foot above me to crush me.

_So that's it,_ I thought. I wasn't scared exactly. I had the feeling that I had a good chance at Elysium. But I felt a tinge of disappointment—I had always envisioned my death to be slightly more heroic. I tried to focus on Annabeth's face in my mind. How she was smiling and calling me Seaweed Brain. Dying suddenly seemed very unfair when we could have had a future together. And what about my mum? And Tyson?

Suddenly I sensed a gust of wind on my side and a sharp pain like claws digging into my stomach. And then I was yanked into the air. Something was carrying me higher and higher, until it suddenly stopped. I felt nauseous and cramped, but also very relieved as I felt something solid under my hands and knees again.

"Thanks, Frank," I mumbled feebly. I was so grateful for being alive; I think I was shaking. I slowly pried open my eyes. Everything was still so bright, but at least I could keep my eyes slightly open now. It wasn't Frank.

"You're welcome," Piper replied sarcastically but with a half-smile.

Sitting on the huge bird, hair blowing in the wind, she looked like one of those Native American warrior princesses of those fictional-mysterious looking puzzles that you could buy in toyshops for a few bucks. Though Ethon looked more like a vulture than the symbol of American freedom and wasn't it ironic, how Native Americans... _I should stop rambling._ I collapsed again.

"Percy!" Piper exclaimed and sprang from the vulture's back.

I could feel her hands searching for the vial of nectar that I had attached to my camper necklace with a piece of string. She finally found it and as I swallowed...it was heaven in liquid form, there's no other way to describe it. The claw marks on my stomach healed and my vision became less blurry.

"It's not enough to counter the aftereffects of an electric shock," Piper said. "Ethon, could you bring me down again and get Calypso instead?"

_I would advise against that, at least right now. The Titan's daughter is doing more damage with her spells than the sons of Jupiter and Hephaestus together. You need more help._

"Unless you're hiding gods among your feathers, I'm afraid we're on our own," Piper snapped back.

But Ethon made a sound that sounded like laughter.

_Not quite, my friends. Don't you hear them?_

I had not the slightest clue what he was talking about. I looked around, even though lifting my head the slightest bit made my neck muscles ache like hell. There were still a lot of minor monsters around, though Frank had already killed the gorgons and the reptiles. He had turned back into human form again and was now fighting alongside Annabeth. Porphyrion and Polybotes looked only mildly annoyed, though. What about help? There were no birds or anything in the sky, no friendly horses or anything. But there was a cloud of dust and smog on the horizon.

Not smog, I suddenly realized, moving shadows.

Suddenly a hellhound broke free out of the shadows. It was gigantic, even bigger than Mrs. O'Leary. A single one of its leaps would have been enough to cross half a soccer field. And on its back it carried a woman in full-battle-armor, clutching a gloomy black sword in her left hand.

She did not wear a helmet, probably because she wanted to intimidate her enemies. Well, it worked for me: the look of rage on her face utterly terrified me. She looked slightly familiar, as did the sword, but could it be...Persephone? Last time I had seen her, she'd looked so different.

Without warning, a second hellhound broke out of the shadows. It was Mrs. O'Leary, I was sure of it, and on her back, also wearing the pitch-black full-metal armor I had seen him wear in Manhattan, was Nico di freaking Angelo!

I didn't even have time to work out what that meant, because out of the dust and shadows hundreds and hundreds of dead—but armed—soldiers emerged.

"Soldiers! Destroy the monsters!" Persephone yelled, and Nico jumped in. "First and second cohort, attack the venti, always at least three of you against one of them. Third cohort goes for the monsters in the south. Archers of the fourth and fifth cohort, shoot at the Gigantes, but under no circumstances hurt the demigods and the sorceress. Everyone else: kill whatever monsters you can get. For Olympus!"

It was strange, really strange, seeing the son of Hades, the epitome of a lone fighter (in my opinion), commanding a whole army! Or legion, whatever. Piper had told me about the fight in Epirus, of course, and how he had woken the dead there, but this was different. Nico literally radiated power. Literally. With my bare eyes, I could see an aura of darkness surrounding his body; his Stygian sword gleamed as if it was possessed with a soul of its own. Yet somehow he still looked rather small for a teenage-boy. It was bizarre.

The arrival of the rearguard had obviously not gone unnoticed by the giants.

"You flimsy spring goddess, you think you can fight us? You fool!" Porphyrion roared.

Persephone suddenly lifted her hand and made a circle-like motion with her fingers. At first nothing happened, but then one after the other flowers began to spring out of the dry earth. Not just ordinary flowers, it seemed, but flesh- or rather monster-eating ones. They formed a green circle around the giants and kept several monsters outside of it. Venti and some others still came through, though.

"Percy, I have to go back. If we can, we'll get Calypso up here, but until then, you have to rest," Piper said.

"But—"

"Percy, please," she said, and I think she used charmspeak on me. But she was right. I could still feel the aftereffects of the electrocution.

"We'll make it, now that we've got a goddess and Nico with his zombie army on our side," she said as she mounted on Ethon's back.

Maybe they really didn't need me to defeat the giants, but I'd be damned if I left Annabeth alone any longer. The nectar had given me some strength back. I needed to reach the water under the ground.

_Dad, give me strength, _I prayed as I tried to concentrate on the liquid below me. Finding it was not difficult, but manipulating and attracting it through layer of layer of soil was. Instead of forcing it straight upwards, which did _not_ work, I tried to move it horizontally. Hazel had said that she had ensured that there were lots of small tunnels under the Aeropag, after all. That worked better.

_Go that way,_ I directed the water in my mind as I steered it towards me. I felt it coming closer. Not quite, though. The water was directly below me, though five feet of soil were between us. I was at an impasse. If I could give Hazel a sign to help me...

_Poseidon is more than just the god of the sea. _I remembered what Annabeth had told me. I knew that, of course. He could do lots of things, but none that would help me right now. Except...well, causing earthquakes was also one of his abilities. If I could make a small rift, just deep enough to reach the water…I concentrated, but nothing happened.

"Need a hand?" I suddenly heard a voice from my right.

Calypso was standing there, smiling slightly. Apparently Nico and Persephone had reached the giants.

"Yeah," I said, "could you maybe, you know, heal me? I had a not-so-good encounter with a ventus."

She chuckled good-naturedly. "Yes, I can see that, but that's no problem for me."

And then she was singing again and note by note my pain vanished.

I had the feeling that finally the tide was turning in our favor.

Right at that moment, the sky went bright white, and Calypso screamed in pain. Just as suddenly, she stopped.


	14. Chapter 14: Reyna

**Chapter 14: Reyna**

My head hurt as if a herd of pegasi had decided to learn how to step dance on my skull. Or rather, like a good-for-nothing centurion had knocked me out several times in a row.

_Speaking of which…_

"Go away, it's no use!" I heard Octavian yelling at someone.

I opened my eyes and saw him, just within reach of my javelin. He was arguing with a woman about thirty years old, wearing black jeans and a red leather jacket. Her eyes were piercing, and in her right hand she held a dark whip. Somehow she looked familiar. She smirked as her gaze fell on me.

"Daughter of Bellona, maybe you can talk some sense in the boy," she said.

"Who are you?" I asked, and she frowned.

"You don't recognize me, do you? But my, you really have changed. So many nights you prayed to me, begging me to avenge you and your sister. But you have let go of old grudges, it seems."

"Nemesis. She's Lady Nemesis, goddess of vengeance," Octavian spat.

I started. Goddess of vengeance, okay. But why was Octavian treating her like that? A goddess was good news, if she was willing to help us fight Enceladus.

"Yes, I can help you defeat the Gigantes," Nemesis said, and as if to underline her point, she cracked her whip. "For a price."

"Yes!" I exclaimed enthusiastically; this could be our chance, finally! "What do you want? We'll give it to you."

"You haven't even heard her price!" Octavian hissed angrily.

"No price is too high to save the lives of so many," I said. "Name it, Lady Nemesis."

She laughed at that, but her eyes held no mirth. "I am the goddess of balance. You have nothing to give to me, dear praetor. At least, not now. Octavian, on the other hand..."

"No!" He interrupted her, flailing emphatically. "Whatever it is, I will not—"

"You haven't even listened to her? Are you completely insane? Please, Lady Nemesis, name your price."

"I should have crushed your skull," Octavian hissed at me. But I just ignored him.

"Yes, my price," Nemesis said slowly. Then she turned towards Octavian. "You are responsible for the deaths of all those you have brought here to fight, and who have been killed along the way, as well as the blood of all those you have had killed in that decimations of yours. All of those soldiers who didn't need to die. What do you _think_ my price is, boy?"

"I did what I had to! We are at war!" Octavian tried desperately to defend himself.

I just stared at him. Was he serious?

"You've admitted that you made a mistake yourself. You said you regretted it!"

"And I do!"

Nemesis tsk'ed. "Now you are contradicting yourself."

Octavian then turned to me. "She wants me to kill myself."

And as he said it, I knew that he was correct.

"Yes, I do. And I want you to do it publicly. I know about the Athena Parthenos. _This_ is your chance. You have to tell your brothers- and sisters-in-arms that they must back your choice to give it to the Greeks. You have to tell them that you were wrong. That you will take your life as penance for your misdeeds."

"I decline," Octavian scoffed and turned around to go away.

_Yeah, right._

I grabbed him by his shoulders and spun him back around again.

"Octavian, think!"

"What about? You want me to kill myself, too, yes? Push a dagger through my heart? Slash my wrists? I knew you didn't like me, but I never thought you outright hated me!"

I took a step back. I didn't really want him to die, of course. But there were _so many_ in my legion dying. I had to stop it.

"Think of the legion, Octavian. Great emperors have given their lives before to protect the men and women under their command!"

"I'm just a stupid centurion, remember?"

"You could make it to Elysium."

Nemesis tilted her head to the side. "Not very likely."

_Not helping._

"Octavian, I know that the legion means a lot to you. Please. I will make sure that every child in New Rome knows of your sacrifice."

"And we will do the same."

I whipped around as I heard the new voice. Cara stood there, a piece of cloth clutched to her face. A long, bleeding gash from her temple to her chin disfigured the right side of her face, and her left shoulder was littered with bite marks of some kind. Quintus stood right behind her, though he did not look much better. His armor was heavily damaged, and he was bleeding from several wounds. He limped as he moved forward.

"We have to fix it, Octavian," Quintus said pleadingly. "And we won't get another chance. There's so much death. We stand no chance against this giant and his minions."

"We'll convince the others to support the Athena Parthenos. We can still win this," Cara added.

Lady Nemesis suddenly took a few steps towards me and said, "Come with me, daughter of Bellona. We will fight together once he has decided."

And, of course, I followed and left Octavian, Cara, and Quintus behind. That's just what you _do_ when a goddess tells you to follow her.

"Lady Nemesis, I don't mean to sound disrespectful, but why are you here?"

"To restore balance, of course. I hate the Gigantes, especially Enceladus."

"Then why—"

"Why I don't just save the day and help you for free? No, child, it's against my nature. But a sacrifice like that, that will be enough to sway me," she said.

"I would have gladly killed myself earlier, if I had known—"

She interrupted me. "Daughter of Bellona, that's not the nature of sacrifices! Your centurion's life only has value to me because it is so very unwillingly given."

Suddenly, the Athena Parthenos behind us glowed brightly twice.

Nemesis smiled. "He's taken a quarter-dose of the poison he used during the decimation. It will kill him in a couple of minutes. Now's a good time to show that Gigantes that not only Athena can defeat him. Let's go!"

And with that, she suddenly grew several times her size, until she was at least eleven feet tall and ran towards Enceladus. I tried to follow, though my human legs took longer.

"Nemesis!" Enceladus bellowed. "What is a minor goddess like you doing here?"

"We'll rip you to pieces, you stinking giant!" I yelled and pushed my spear at the giant's leg. I missed, but Nemesis hit him nicely with her whip.

"You gods don't know when you've lost!" Enceladus roared and brought his spear down hard against Nemesis' shoulder.

She hissed in pain, ichor flowing down, but I used the opening to ram my javelin into Enceladus' thigh.

"ARGH!" he shouted and whirled, trying to slash at me. But I was faster.

Nemesis helped a lot, of course. She distracted the giant with her whip and nearly managed to smack his spear out of his grasp once, but I inflicted the major wounds. Unfortunately, though, they healed very quickly, and I did not have the feeling that he was getting any weaker.

"Here, you stupid giant!" I taunted him as I slashed my dagger down hard and chopped up a claw where his toes were supposed to be.

In hindsight, I shouldn't have drawn attention to myself, because he used his other foot to kick me several feet through the air and I crashed down hard on top of the remains of some kind of hut.

Why did he have to be such a damn good fighter?

I got up again and ran back towards the giant. I was nearly hit by Nemesis' whip, but I managed to duck and attacked again with my spear. I would not give up.

All of a sudden, I heard galloping, a small pause, and the sound of hooves breaking soil.

Then, the voice of a girl: "That was a really stupid idea, Chiron. But I guess we'll have to grill this giant now. For Ares!"

As I looked up between stabs, I could see the Greek centaur shooting arrows at Enceladus' head. The girl wore full battle armor and…was that spear _electric_?

"Clarisse, watch out!" the centaur yelled as Enceladus nearly caught her with his spear. But she was a quick fighter.

The thing was that as more people attacked the giant, the more I had to watch out for their weapons. Nemesis' whip, striking with supersonic speed, was one thing. But joined by that electric spear, and arrows, and more arrows… I was struggling to keep up. I stumbled as I dodged Enceladus' spear, but was too slow to get up again. With a loud _CRACK_ he stepped on my javelin, breaking it in several pieces. I wanted to cry out! That spear had accompanied me for most of my life, and now it was gone.

I swallowed hard and rolled out of the way as Enceladus tried to trample me to death. I would defeat him with my dagger. I could do it! I would not back out of this fight, not after everything.

Suddenly my skin began to glow. Not only my skin. My head, my hands, my whole body suddenly shone like a red flame. I felt invigorated, and out of nowhere a new red spear appeared in my hand. And then a voice, a voice I had only dreamt of a couple of times in my life, but had longed for as long as I could think—

"Fight, my daughter. Make me proud."


	15. Chapter 15: Nico

**Chapter 15: Nico**

_I could have had a worse stepmother_, I thought as I rode into battle behind Persephone. She was resourceful, to say the least. How she had bribed my father to give me his blessing and a power boost…I wouldn't dwell on that too long. And then she had summoned the hellhounds and an army of dead soldiers. The time spent in Epirus was nothing in comparison. The best thing was that she had given me official command over the troops, including major strategy and total control on the battlefield.

"It's not my area," she had said, and I hadn't argued.

If Persephone had thought of her own battle strategy, she hadn't told me. I think she didn't have one, to be honest. She had only told me that she needed to focus on Porphyrion, because her powers were unevenly matched against Polybotes. I knew that, of course. His poison attack in Mythomagic was 100% more effective against earth and other water type cards. But that still didn't make him immune to dead soldiers.

Chaos broke out as the first wave of the undead reached the enemy. They were incredibly effective, clawing their way through dracanae and an assortment of other minor monsters. A Cyclops howled in pain as he was reduced to dust, and a telekhine fled the scene once he noticed the soldiers. Overall, my troops were excellent fighters. They had troubles against the venti, though.

"Come on, Mrs. O'Leary," I said, and steered her towards a group of storm spirits locked in combat with my underlings.

It was annoying how the venti could just vanish and reappear within seconds; I had to focus strongly on their life force to anticipate where they would reappear next. As a child of Hades, I had thought I had a better grasp on the concept of souls and life, but my stepmother had proved me wrong. Right after she had summoned the army, she had explained to me how to identify a soul within a being and how to judge it based on brightness, pulse, and color. I'd felt a little stupid, because it was all rather logical. In any case, it was a great help to me now.

_Slash_. I managed to catch the spirit closest to me by surprise. My Stygian blade barely grazed him, yet it was already disintegrating with a small popping sound, like it was being sucked into a black hole. The other venti were harder to catch, but I still managed to send several of them back to Tartarus.

Then I shifted to focus my offensive against Polybotes. As I came closer, I saw that Leo was bleeding from several wounds. There was a deep gash in his shoulder, and on top of that his scalp was scratched and bleeding. Jason seemed fine for the most part, but he looked absolutely exhausted. Only Piper, flying above on an eagle_—_and how had that happened?_—_managed to strike the giant's head repeatedly.

"Make some noise, girl," I urged Mrs. O'Leary.

_WOOF WOOF, here I come_, she seemed to say. Her barking was really loud. Polybotes was startled, at least.

"Time to go back to Tartarus!" I yelled, and then I attacked.

"Good timing, man," Jason panted, his voice a mixture of relief and surprise.

"Turn that stinking giant into dog food!" Leo cheered.

The plan had been to short-distance shadow travel from Mrs. O'Leary's back onto the shoulders of Polybotes and to sever his head (or at least hit the carotid artery). It had been a great plan! Unfortunately, I had overestimated my father's blessing, or so it seemed. He had healed me, and I knew my energy level _had_ been at a hundred percent, but shadow traveling still left me exhausted and slowed me down.

"Vermin! Get off my back!" Polybotes snarled as he reached back to grab at me.

Fortunately Leo, now joined by Frank, hit him hard at his feet, distracting him enough for me to shake off the dizziness and drive my sword into his neck.

_Good one_, I thought. And then, _Not so good after all, damn it!_, because as the giant howled in pain, I lost my balance. I would have fallen hard if the enormous eagle hadn't caught me, lowering me slowly to the ground.

"Ha! Take that, Stinkface!" I heard Leo yell.

_It was a good hit after all, _I thought as I saw ichor running down the giant's face. Polybotes turned to gaze at me, eyes filled with hatred.

"You foul demigod! Child of the Underworld, I will kill you slowly, painfully," he hissed. "I will rip your limbs from your body and crush your bones."

_We'll see about that._

"Archers, attack!" I ordered, and almost immediately a rain of arrows fell upon him.

More ichor oozed out of his wounds. Now we had him truly enraged.

"Scum of the earth! I will make sure not one of you is left alive!" Polybotes roared and swung his trident around, trying to hit me left and right.

He was good with his trident; I'd be the first to admit that. Very good, even. But I hadn't taken lessons with the greatest swordsmen of all time just to become demigod kebab.

"You little rat, stay still!" He roared in frustration as his trident struck only thin air again and again.

I feinted left, driving my blade into his right thigh. But Polybotes only gritted his teeth in pain and continued his attack. Piper, in the meantime, sliced into his head several times, but Polybotes just ignored her. His wounds were closing rapidly, so maybe he had nothing to worry about.

The thought scared me a little. Any other monster would have evaporated several times by now. Maybe we _did_ need more godly help.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Leo uncorking a vial of nectar. _And about time,_ I thought as I remembered the several bleeding wounds I'd seen littering his body. At that moment, Jason stepped forward and rammed his golden sword in Polybotes' left buttock. The giant bellowed in pain and spun around.

I saw what was about to happen, but I had no time to do anything more than cry out, "LEO!"

As Polybotes swung his trident around, he hit Leo square in the back, forcing him several feet forwards. That wasn't the worst though. As a result, the whole vial emptied itself in his throat, and out of reflex Leo must have swallowed all of it.

"NOOO!" I heard Piper screaming from above the battlefield, but there was nothing we could do.

Leo was burning up. The overdose was incinerating each and every cell of his body. I looked away, and I felt a piercing pain in my chest. He had been a brother-in-arms, after all.

But I would not let his death distract me. I forced myself not to sense his soul leaving his body.

Again I ducked and sprinted under the enormous legs of Polybotes. This time I aimed higher, far over his right knee, inwards to where I assumed one of his main arteries ran.

"HUAGH!" Polybotes cried out as I hit and hit my target well.

A small river of ichor gushed out of the wound.

"Filthy demigod!" Polybotes boomed. "Son of Hades, I smell the taint of Tartarus on you. And I'll send you back!"

He lunged at me but missed as another wave of arrows hit him. He swung his trident at the archers, and at least a dozen integrated upon impact.

"You let your army die without batting an eye, but I'm sure you don't want to lose your mortal friends. I killed the fire boy! I'll take the lightning boy next, if you don't surrender!" he grinned.

"Try me!" Jason shouted, and Polybotes smiled.

_Bad sign._

Suddenly, the ground beneath Jason's feet crumbled, and before he had the chance to react at all, a fountain of water shot up from the ground. It knocked Jason off his feet and with power akin to a cannon punch shot him far into the distance. _Was he…?_

"You BASTARD!" Piper shrieked, diving towards the giant's head.

She struck him once, twice, hissing like a Fury, but I had my mind on Jason. _Feel the life force_, I remembered Persephone's words as I tried to locate Jason's soul. If he hadn't been knocked unconscious by the water blast, there was a good chance that he had managed to soften the blow instead of being smashed on the ground. But where was he?

I still hadn't found him when Polybotes very nearly brought his trident down on my head. I had to concentrate on the giant! I couldn't help Jason, anyway.

"Who shall I eliminate next, son of Hades? What, no opinion? I choose…the daughter of Aphrodite!"

Another blast of water shot up in the air, and in my mind I envisioned Piper being blasted miles away. But before the stream could reach her, the water suddenly bent to the side.

"Not so fast!" Percy yelled from my left.

I allowed myself a quick glance. He looked beaten up, his shirt torn and sporting several burn marks. But I couldn't detect any major wounds, thank the gods. With one fluid motion, he directed the jet of water directly at Porphyrion's face, who was currently being assaulted by Persephone, Hazel and Frank. Annabeth was crouched to the side over Calypso, who lay unconscious on the ground.

The water was a nice distraction as Porphyrion, at least for a moment, lost his sense of direction, allowing my stepmother to ram her sword through a chink in his armor and straight into his chest.

"ARRGH!", Porphyrion cried out in pain.

The attack enraged Polybotes. "You dare hurt my brother? Son of Poseidon, I will kill you, wrap your head, and send it to your dear father in a nice parcel with seashell wrapping paper!"

I tried to strike again; I wasn't about to let him hurt Percy, but I missed.

"I've had it with you demigods! Enough is enough!" Polybotes roared, and stamped his feet on the ground. Once, twice. At first, nothing happened, and I managed to strike his knee as he tried to deflect Piper's attack from above. But then, suddenly, the ground broke open. And I mean _really_ open. A huge rift at least six feet wide gaped at his left, and a scream as someone fell—_HAZEL!_

_No, no, no, no._ This couldn't be happening. Not again. I couldn't lose her. I could not. Hazel. _Sister._

"HA! You see, son of Poseidon! My power knows no limit. I will destroy all of you and prepare the world for the rise of Gaia!"

I couldn't listen to him. I tried to focus with all my might on Hazel, fighting the panic rising in me. Where was my sister? Was she still alive? Was she hurt? Where, where, WHERE?

Out of nowhere I heard my stepmother's voice in my head. _I've got her._

Relief like I had never felt before flooded through me. And then I sensed her soul. Indeed, she was many, many feet below the ground, but not badly hurt and very much alive. Persephone must have manipulated the ground so as not to crush her bones. I would thank her later, kneel before her in gratitude. I'd even help her with her Underworld Garden project, if she wanted me to.

_You're welcome, but there's no need for that_, she said in my head.

How did she do the mind-speak thing anyway? At any rate, I forced my worry for Hazel out of my mind. I needed to vaporize this giant, and soon. I think Persephone really had Porphyrion under control, but those of us combating Polybotes had no godly help whatsoever. And this giant really had an anger management problem.

"Soldiers!" I called to the remaining undead legionnaires. "First and second cohorts, finish the monsters. Archers, focus on Porphyrion. All others, attack Polybotes! Do it _now!"_

It's not that I actively disliked the feeling of having so many at my command while I essentially ordered them on a suicide mission, but it still felt strange. _Oh well. _They were technically dead anyway.

I sprinted a couple of steps to the right as the first soldiers threw their spears. One of them managed to ram his pilum into Polybotes' right reptilian foot, making him stagger slightly. I seized the opening and cut into his right forearm, but the wound was shallow. Too shallow to prevent Polybotes from flinging his trident at Piper. He missed her by an inch, but on its way back down the tip of the trident grazed the bird beneath her.

_SHREEK_! the bird went and tumbled down. In my mind, I visualized Piper falling down several feet and landing on the ground, badly injured or worse. Thankfully, Persephone must have kept an eye on her, because all of a sudden the big bird had turned into a huge olive tree, Piper sitting safely in its crown.

"YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING GIANT!" Percy fumed.

I had never seen him quite so enraged. Not even when he had thought that I'd sold him out to my father some time ago. His green eyes seemed to burn with anger, and his black hair stood up even more wildly than usual.

"STOP HURTING MY FRIENDS!"

As he shouted, the earth beneath my feet started to shake, a weak tremor that grew stronger and stronger.

"Nico, get out of the way!" Percy snarled, and I hurriedly stumbled aside several steps.

"You think a tiny earthquake can shake me? HA!" Polybotes chuckled nastily.

And really… I mean, it was impressive, sure, but it didn't feel like enough to defeat a giant. Suddenly, though, Percy rammed his sword into the ground, and the earth rumbled in earnest. I fell on my buttocks and so did the others, including Porphyrion and Persephone. Only Polybotes was still standing, and he looked slightly confused.

"Okay, hero. You can shake the earth. But that's not enough to defeat ME!" Polybotes grinned.

"We are Gigantes! You puny demigods can do nothing against us!" Porphyrion added from the other side as he stood to attack Persephone once again.

"I can do more than just shake the earth. Have fun in Tartarus!" Percy hissed, and as if on cue, the earth behind Polybotes broke open and water shot out of the rift. Once again, he directed it at Porphyrion and then launched frontal attack on Polybotes.

I wouldn't have thought it possible, but Percy somehow managed to dodge Polybotes' trident _and_ land a hit directly over his heart. He only hit the armor, but the impact was enough to make Polybotes lose his balance and stumble backwards. _Oh_! Where the water had burst from the ground a massive rift had opened, and Polybotes fell right into it.

"Damn it," Percy mumbled next to me._ How did he get here so fast? "_I wanted him to fall deeper. Your stepmom did this mind-speaking thing and told me that if I managed to get him further than head-deep, she had a chance of closing the earth around him and suffocating him. I really thought I could do it... Can you do something with your Underworld powers?"

My mind raced. I had created a great rift before on that one Stymphalian bird-infested island in the Atlantic. With Reyna. But it hadn't been entirely voluntary; could I recreate it? _Maybe. Probably._

"You FOOLS!" Polybotes roared from the depths of the rift.

Beside me, Percy tensed, ready to attack, but I held him back at his elbow. I felt black shadows rising around me as I concentrated on the task ahead.

Earth. Particles of creatures long gone. Just layers and layers between the Underworld and us. Under my command.

_Split,_ I directed the thought at the ground beneath Polybotes' feet. _Obey the son of Hades. Split now. SPLIT._

I felt it even before Polybotes screamed. The ground opened in a single fluid motion, several feet wide and incredibly deep.

And then, _CRACK_! Persephone had followed through with her claims. As she brought her firsts together, cracking her knuckles in the process, the earth closed again. Polybotes was gone. Except…

"Watch out!" Piper yelled from the tree as poisonous muck, the remnants of the giant, spurted out of the now-closed rift. Several droplets of the goo nearly hit me, and where they fell on the ground, they hissed like acid on metal.

"Well done, man." Percy smiled at me. Then, suddenly, he froze.

"HUAGH!" Porphyrion was screaming in anger as he attacked Persephone and Frank. But Percy wasn't looking at them. Instead…

"ANNABETH!" He screamed, voice full of anguish, and ran towards her, her body lying facedown on the ground.

_To all the gods, no, don't let her be dead,_ I prayed.

"Annabeth! No, no, NO!" Percy cried as he turned her limp body around. As he did, I could see that there was a huge hole in her orange Camp Half-Blood shirt. The poisonous muck had etched its way through the fabric and into her heart.

Annabeth Chase was dead.


	16. Chapter 16: Nico

**Chapter 16: Nico**

"Annabeth, don't leave me. Please. I need you. I love you. Please, breathe. We can work things out, I promise! Annabeth, Annabeth, Annabeth…"

Seeing him like that made me feel as though someone had ripped my heart out, trampled it repeatedly with combat boots, and forced it down my throat. I couldn't swallow, I couldn't think clearly. I just had to make it stop. Whatever it would take. _Whatever...it would..._

"Nico, snap out of it!" Piper yelled as she made her way down from the oak tree. "We'll have time to grieve later. Help me kill Porphyrion, _now."_

But her charmspeak didn't work on me. I just watched as she sprinted off to the side and rammed her dagger into Porphyrion's skull.

"Ann.. Annabeth, Ann… Ann… Annabeth, Anna…beth…" Percy's voice was shaking as he cradled his girlfriend. More than girlfriend. _The love of his life. _I had always known that.

I had to fix it. I had to. I was the son of Hades, dammit! I would do anything, anything, _anything._

Suddenly, my head stopped spinning. Maybe… yes, there might be a way.

"Thanatos, God of Death. As the son of Hades, I call you forward," I said, tearing my gaze away from Percy.

Black shadows swirled before me, growing bigger and bigger, until a seven-foot-tall, dark-skinned man with black wings emerged. _Thanatos_.

"You have called me, son of Hades. Do not waste my time with a request for helping fight this Gigantes. I do not meddle in the affairs of the Olympians, as you well know," he said flatly and almost bored.

My father had spoken to me a couple of times of Thanatos. I knew that he was the god of peaceful death. I also knew that, like my father, he did not hold the other gods in high esteem. But my father had praised him as an efficient and reliable worker, a god true to his word, which was a rare occurrence among the Olympians.

"There is a soul I wish for you to safeguard."

Thanatos smiled coolly. "You should really work on your soul-detection skills, son of Hades. Your sister is alive and will find her way back to your battlefield, most likely sooner rather than later."

"I know that, thank you."

"Then who is it? Surely not the daughter of Athena, if what Eros said is true. The sons of Jupiter and Hephaestus and even the Titan's daughter are not dead yet. What is it you want from me?" he sniffed impatiently.

In the back of my mind I registered the good news—Jason, Leo and Calypso were still alive! _Good_. But not the most important thing at the moment.

"Annabeth Chase. I want you to safeguard her soul in the meantime and to resurrect her once Gaia is defeated."

"Well, what a surprise," Thanatos sneered. "But what do you have to offer, son of Hades? A life is a valuable thing, and it's my job to make sure no soul escapes the Underworld. Even if you were to offer me your own life, it would not be enough to tempt me to break that sacred duty."

"You want more power. You resent the fact that you are my father's servant. You have so much to do, yet he still gives you more tasks."

"So?" Thanatos prompted with a raised eyebrow.

I took a deep breath. I had made my choice, and I was too far gone already.

"I offer you my life and my death."

Thanatos did not react immediately. Instead, he looked at me thoughtfully for a moment. Still, I thought I could detect lust for power in his eyes.

"Your life and your death, you say," Thanatos repeated thoughtfully and walked around me, giving me a once-over.

It was an uncomfortable sensation, but I forced myself not to turn around as he walked behind my back. I staunchly refused to glance back at Percy and Annabeth.

"Open your mouth."

"What?" I blinked, confused. "Why?"

"Because I said to," he replied flatly.

I obeyed, and he scrutinized my teeth.

"You would become my servant, you understand. Not just until your death, but afterwards too, until the end of time," he clarified, and my throat constricted.

That was what I had offered. And eternity was an awfully long time, but… No, it was worth it.

Suddenly, Thanatos took another step forward and lunged at my face. At first I thought he wanted to strike me, but he simply grabbed my chin with his thumb and index finger and tilted it up, fingers cool against my skin.

"Not just my servant, my property. To do as I say. To follow my every command. Are you prepared to do that, Nico di Angelo, son of Hades?" he hissed and stared right into my eyes.

Again I swallowed, but I managed to say, "Yes," and he stepped back.

"Then swear it on the river Styx. And your first task once all this is over is to get rid of those amalgam fillings in your teeth. Precious metals always interfere with our work.

Now say 'I swear it on the river Styx'," he ordered.

_Now or never. Now or never. Now or never, _I repeated in my mind. I would give my all to see Percy happy. I would choose to give my life. I would choose eternal servitude. Maybe I was out of my mind but I didn't care anymore. _Anything for him._

"I swear it on the river Styx."

And as the words left my mouth, black shadows swirled around me, only to dissipate as quickly as they had appeared.

"I accept your bargain. Remember, though, that I will only return her soul if you do not die before the fight is over. Now tell him," he said, and walked towards Percy and Annabeth.

I didn't hesitate, sprinting to Percy as fast as I could.

He was still cradling Annabeth's dead body in his arms, tears rolling down his cheeks in seemingly endless streams and looking so _broken_ it made my heart jolt painfully.

"Percy!" I shouted to get his attention, and he looked up.

"Nico…" he choked out. "It's Annabeth, Nico. She… she's… dead."

I stared down at him and fought the impulse to hug him.

I had something much better with which to comfort him.

"Percy, there's something I can do, as child of Hades. Only once, though, but…" I started, and Percy did a double take.

He looked like he wanted to interrupt me, but I continued. "I have asked Thanatos, Lord of Death, to safeguard Annabeth's body until the fight against the giants is over. And if we manage to survive, he will give her soul a second chance, and she will live again."

For a moment, Percy just stared at me. Then, abruptly, he lurched up and threw his arms around my neck and waist. He squeezed me hard, sobbing uncontrollably against my shoulder, but I didn't complain. These might be the last memories I'd get with Percy, the one moment for which I would pay for the rest of my existence. I had to burn it into my consciousness. I registered everything: the smell of his hair, the feel of his arms and hands around me, the sound of his irregular breathing. He didn't thank me with words, but his actions were enough.

"Yes, yes, what a revelation," Thanatos said coolly, effectively breaking us apart. "But remember, you have to stay alive, boy. That's my condition. I can already hear Alcyoneus in the distance, so _do_ make an effort to stay whole," he drawled, and, with a snap of his fingers, Annabeth's body disappeared.

And then out of nowhere I heard a distantly familiar voice. "Don't worry, old friend. I'll make sure of it."


	17. Chapter 17: Percy

**Chapter 17: Percy**

One moment I felt like my soul had left my body. And the next, there had been Nico di Angelo, handing it right back to me.

He had saved my Annabeth. She had very nearly died and now… Limbo. _She's in limbo. She's not dead,_ I told myself. The thought of her being gone was just too awful, too horrible to contemplate. Nico had saved her, and I would be forever in his debt.

And Thanatos… Thanatos was kind of the good guy this time. Though I _really_ didn't like him. He'd refused yet again to help us fight the giants even though we'd needed his help, and he—

"Well, I'll be off." Thanatos interrupted my stream of thoughts. "Souls to catch, monsters to subdue. Stay alive, Nico di Angelo," he ordered in that arrogant tone I just couldn't stand and vanished with a pop.

"What did you promise him, Nico?" I asked, because I needed to know. _Don't say 'your life', please, _I prayed. Because even though Annabeth's life was worth more than anything, I cared for the boy, and it wasn't fair for him to die for our sakes.

"An internship. He's overworked," Nico replied, and I nodded in relief. That made sense, considering their matching skill sets.

"Manners, boys..." The god behind me chided, but I could see a smile tugging faintly at his lips. "I'm Eros or Cupid, your choice. We haven't met face to face until now, but I know a lot about you, Percy Jackson."

I cringed and stared. The god was about twelve feet tall, with lengthy black hair cascading down his back. Not to mention the wings, which were kind of a dead giveaway that he wasn't an ordinary mortal. And, of course, dark red pupils, which were scary, though overall he was strangely handsome.

"Yeah, hi. Have you come to help us fight the giants?" I asked.

"That's why I'm here. But first, take this and wake up Calypso," he said, handing me a vial. "It's a Titan-specific derivative from nectar, which should work better on her than yours does. And gorgon's blood for the son of Hephaestus."

I hesitated for a second, and he rolled his eyes.

"The healing type, of course."

"Okay, thank you," I said, slightly awkwardly. Could I trust him? Well…it wasn't like I had a choice.

"Give it to them now. But afterwards, you will not join the fight. You have to find the young man called Jason Grace. If we wish to defeat Porphyrion and Alcyoneus before the sun sets and Gaia rises, we need as much manpower as we can get."

"But—"

"No, it has to be you. You came close to losing someone dear to you today; you are not in fighting condition. Find Jason Grace and then come back. You still have your vial of nectar? Good."

He then turned to Nico.

"Nico, come with me. Let's stop Alcyoneus before he can distract the others."

Nico nodded, whistled for Mrs. O'Leary, and then the three of them vanished in a cloud of shadows and dust.

Why was everything moving so quickly? I didn't know what to think, what to do. I suddenly felt very alone. _Focus,_ I told myself. _Leo first._ This was my (literally) god-given mission. I had to concentrate.

I sprinted to his form, lying motionless on the ground. I would not have believed that he was alive if a god hadn't assured me that that was indeed the case. Leo looked burnt up; there was no other description for it. His whole body was charred black—even his lips had shriveled. The air smelled of burnt skin and hair. I uncapped the vial of gorgon's blood gingerly.

It wasn't fair. Leo, the freaking son of Hephaestus, being consumed by fire not only once but twice…

I took a deep breath and tilted the vial into his mouth. _Steady drops, steady drops,_ I repeated to myself. Leo's breathing was barely audible, but it was there; that made me hope. _Steady drops, steady drops_. His teeth still looked normal. _Nice teeth, look at them,_ I thought desperately as the scent of burnt flesh threatened to become too much.

"Come on," I urged crispy-Leo.

_Steady drops, steady drops. _Until the vial was empty. I shook it once, twice, to make sure that I hadn't missed even the slightest drop of the precious liquid. But no; the vial was truly empty. I threw it away.

"Work, stuff, work," I begged the gorgon's blood.

And I could see improvement! The charred insides of his cheeks had taken on a healthier color. A burnt lump of flesh became recognizable as a tongue. And yes, slowly but steadily his breathing became stronger. Even his skin... Urgh. Leo shed his skin like a snake. _Not cool_. Or, well, yes it was, I had to admit as I saw fresh pink skin underneath. Hair began to sprout from his scalp, familiar curls that stood in stark contrast to his strangely pinkish skin tone. On his arms and legs even the scars from the helicopter accident vanished. It was like he was being reborn, like a phoenix from the ashes.

"Water..." Leo suddenly croaked, sounding strangely weak.

I had none with me, so I decided to summon some ground water. I... might have been distracted. How else would I explain the fact that I used a little too much force and, with a big _swoosh,_ soaked us both?

"What was that for?" Leo complained—but not after catching a mouthful.

Looked like he was back to normal. I smiled.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"Did we defeat Polybotes?" Leo asked, looking around. "I had this weird dream about being fried in the helicopter again, but I feel okay now."

I decided against giving him a full explanation. Too much had been going on. Annabeth in limbo, another giant just beyond the horizon...

"Yes, Polybotes is gone, but Porphyrion is still going strong against Persephone and the others behind the hill," I said.

"All of us and a goddess against one giant?"

I hesitated again. There was no use keeping _everything_ from him.

"Hazel's missing below ground, but I have a feeling she's okay. Jason has been blown away; I'm about to go get him. First, though, we have to feed Calypso some nectar. I think Porphyrion struck her with lightning or something. But we have support from a second god now, Eros. He told me to feed her this," I shook the vial. "She should still be on that hill."

Leo immediately sprinted off in the direction of the hill; I followed more slowly. I felt drained.

_Focus,_ I called myself to order.

"Hey, sunshine," Leo said as he knelt down and touched Calypso's cheek. She was unconscious but otherwise looked mostly unscathed.

"You're sure that stuff will work?" Leo asked anxiously.

What was he fretting about? It wasn't like_ she_ had been hit with acidic giant goop.

_Pull yourself together, Percy, _I chastised myself.

"I think we can trust Eros, so yes. Maybe hold her hand or something," I said, uncorking the vial.

Nectar was still dangerous, so I just poured three small drops down her throat to start. There was plenty left, so I could give her more if I needed to. Or rather, Leo could.

"Stay with her until she wakes up, and give her one more drop if she doesn't get better in the next ten minutes," I told Leo. "I have to go find Jason. We still need him, especially if Alcyoneus reaches us before sunset. Eros and Nico are fighting him right now about a mile to the north."

"Nico...?" Leo looked puzzled, but I had no time for explanations.

"We'll talk later. I have to find Jason. Good luck," I said, then turned east towards where Jason had vanished.

It wasn't something I was used to, leaving my friends and the battlefield behind. But I had a hunch that Eros was right—we needed Jason against Alcyoneus. And if I was being honest, I really wasn't in fighting condition. My heart clenched in my chest when I thought about the moment when I had turned Annabeth over… No, I really couldn't think about that right now. She was in limbo, not dead, thank the gods. Or Nico, rather. I sighed and tried to pull myself together. Again.

_Jason._ How do you find a demigod who is most likely injured in a multi-million, monster-infested metropolis? All I could do at the moment was walk in the general direction in which the giant had thrown him. I started walking faster. After all, I didn't have any time to lose.

As I jogged down the road, I watched out for unusual occurrences. Not minor monster attacks, which slowed me down, but weren't out of the ordinary. Maybe a sudden flash of lightning, an unexplained tornado. I had always been bad at detecting subtle hints. I needed something obvious.

I thought hard, trying to remember a god or goddess who could help me with finding a lost friend, but came up with nothing. Hermes was the god of travelers, but like most other major gods, he was still indisposed. Why hadn't the Athena Parthenos worked? I hadn't had the time to ask Nico about it, but somehow I had counted on some more godly support by now.

I looked left and right, but there was just nothing. I went through a restaurant and into the back alley of an Athenian McDonalds, only to meet more monsters. The sun had already begun to sink through the sky. We had to defeat Gaia before the sun set, or else she would wake from her slumber and _bad things_ would happen.

Suddenly I was stopped dead in my tracks. I was in a narrow alley. Trash bins were strewn haphazardly around. Someone close blared death metal. Graffiti covered the brick walks, and it stank of sewage. But it wasn't the smell or the music that had made me stop.

It was the soil beneath my feet. It was trembling slightly, but not because of _my _powers. I could hear glass windows clattering; an empty soft drink can rolled around. Then, out of nowhere, the pavement broke open, and the figure of a woman formed out of dust and dirt.

_Gaia. _

"What do you want, Dirtface? Go back to sleep!" I shouted before the soil had stopped spinning. But she ignored me. _Figures._

Gaia looked…different. Instead of brown robes, she wore what could only be described as battle armor made of soil and stones. Her long hair had been pulled back in a ponytail as if she was ready to get her hands dirty. In regards of blood on her hands; they were dirty already. The ponytail looked really, really strange on her; out of all the gods, I thought only Aphrodite had a chance of pulling it off. At least her eyes were still closed.

"What a pleasure. If it isn't the great Percy Jackson", she said mockingly.

"Present," I replied, but it came out far less confident than I had hoped.

"Present and breathing, but not for much longer. You're running out of time," she said in a creepy, singsong voice.

And then, ever so slowly, she opened her eyes.

My heart plummeted as I saw her blue-green irises reflecting the light. I took a step back before I could stop myself.

"What, you didn't expect me to be awake yet? Poor boy, it must be such a shock," she cooed, sickly sweet. "But today is the Feast of Spes; I wouldn't miss it for the world! It's such a nice day to regain my full strength, don't you think? And all I need is the life force of two demigods."

Her fake smile turned my stomach. And suddenly, I got very, very angry. Gaia had made my life miserable too many times before. She was the reason why Annabeth was in limbo!

"No life force for you. Have some riptide instead!" I yelled and lunged at her.

I would've hit her, if not for the tiny, barely-worth-mentioning fact that Gaia was one of the most powerful beings since ever. I froze in midair as she held up her hand in a lazy 'stop' gesture. Thin ropes appeared, wrapping themselves around my whole body and binding me tight. I fell down with an undignified _thump_, a nice demigod package just ready to be sacrificed.

"You demigods always think you're so clever. Let me tell you—you're not. You are a predictable bunch. I knew when my servant brought me the first that someone would come on a rescue mission," she snarled.

"Jason! Where is he?" I yelled, thrashing furiously on the ground.

"I had hoped that the daughter of Aphrodite would come. I don't need two males, after all..." She said, lost in thought. Then she blinked, only to focus and fix her stare on me.

"The son of Jupiter, yes. He'll do nicely. Do you want to see him? Then, have a look. Here he is," she said and snapped her fingers.

With another _thump_, Jason fell out of thin air and onto the hard ground. He was bound like me with thin ropes, but he was unconscious, a thing for which I was glad. He looked badly injured: blood had soaked the ropes on his left side and dried his hair in clumps over a wound on the left side of his head.

"Oh yes, the rock that he smashed against didn't know what hit it," Gaia said gleefully.

I tried to tap into my earthshaking powers to wipe the disgusting smile from her face, but I felt like the ropes were draining all my energy. Which they probably were.

"But what should I do now, hm?" Gaia pretended to think. "I know! I'll wait until it's closer to sunset, and then I'll take you both back to the Aeropag and ask the females which of them will sacrifice herself for one of you. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?"

"You've got mud for brains if you think that will work!" I shouted, but she just grinned even wider.

"I think it's a nice plan. But I won't have you causing a ruckus before we're there, or else they'll find us. And timing is essential. Sleep."

And just like that, I slept.

If Gaia had anything to do with the fact that I immediately dreamt of Camp Half-Blood's eradication, I didn't know. But it was likely.

I saw…a battlefield after the battle had been lost. I don't know how else to describe it. I saw dead campers both from Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter left and right. Many looked gravely injured; some were missing limbs. And just to the right of me lay a severed head atop of a rock. The Great House had been burnt to the ground. Obviously, the Golden Fleece had not been enough to keep the monsters away. It was terrifying.

I glanced uphill. Next to the place where the fleece used to hang stood the Athena Parthenos. The statue shimmered in the early afternoon light, pulsating with brightness like an oversized, flickering street lamp. Why had it been not enough that it stood there? Annabeth had been sure that once it was brought here, the gods' split personalities would heal, and they would end the war. But, apparently, something had gone wrong.

To the statue's feet lay Octavian's body. I had never liked the guy, but I still couldn't watch as an empousa sank her teeth in the flesh of his shoulder.

Laestrygonians were fighting against two girls no older than twelve years; a Cyclops stabbed a satyr.

Seeing the place you called home destroyed was a very special form of torture. I felt helpless. If I had been there, I might have stopped the slaughter. But I wasn't.

Suddenly my eyes fell on the giant. I don't know how I had missed him before. He had turned his back on me but I knew it was Enceladus. After all, all other giants were either in Athens or back in Tartarus.

At his feet I saw Reyna. _Reyna!_ I was so glad to see her alive that at first I did not notice how badly injured she was. I had dreamt of her before, so I knew that she had lost three fingers. But I was startled to see a huge flesh wound on her thigh. Also, she was missing her trademark braid, which the giant or some other monster had apparently ripped right off her head. Blood ran from the large bald patch on her head and out of the wound on her thigh, but still she managed to avoid the giant's spear. Despite her injuries, she was glowing like the Athena Parthenos on the hill. A red aura swirled around her, and even her spear emitted a faint red light. Perhaps it was the blessing of her mother.

But she wasn't fighting the giant alone. A goddess—Nemesis, I assumed, as she fit Leo's description to the letter—as well as Chiron and Clarisse were keeping him on his toes as they attacked him with whips, spears, and arrows. Clarisse probably only helped because she wanted a giant on her list of slain monsters, but I wasn't about to complain. She was a good fighter, I'd admit that, and she electrocuted the giant time and time again.

I had to force myself to look away, but I felt like I needed to assess the entire situation. I swallowed hard. There were quite a few monsters running around, but barely any Greeks or Romans. I saw Quintus arguing with a daughter of Bacchus. Far behind the river, I made out Clovis. He and one of his half-siblings were lulling monsters into sleep and stabbing them once they succumbed. But there were so few of us! What had happened to the Twelfth Legion Fulminata? Where was everyone?

_Snap_. Nemesis' whip hit Enceladus straight in the chest, and the giant roared in pain.

"You can't defeat me! I am the greatest of the giants!"

"You're a pathetic loser, that's what you are!" Clarisse yelled and threw a dagger at him.

But Enceladus ducked, and she missed.

"Ha, if only you knew! You are running out of time, demigods! Gaia wakes today, and before the sun sets in Athens the world as you know it will crumble!" Enceladus said ducking again to dodge Nemesis' whip without effort.

"You won't be around to see it!" Clarisse snarled, sending a wave of electricity through the giant's knee.

Nemesis, Chiron, and Clarisse seemed to be unimpressed by the giant's threats. But Reyna had stopped fighting for a moment. She turned her head and looked right at me as if she could see me. Then she nodded grimly and attacked again.

Suddenly, the scene shifted, and I found myself in the place I had least expected to see: the familiar kitchen of my mom and Paul's apartment, the other place I called home. A sense of foreboding elevated my pulse. At the kitchen table, Paul and Mom were in the midst of a heated discussion, ignoring an untouched tray of blue muffins right next to them.

"Please don't, it's too dangerous, love," Paul pleaded, clutching her hand in his.

"My son is in danger, I can't just _sit_ here," Mom said, her voice shaking.

She was scared. Scared that something had happened to me. I hated knowing that.

"You told me that mortals can't cross the camp's boundaries. So even if we go back to his camp, all we'll be able to do is stand outside and watch. And that girl, Reyna, she said Percy wasn't there anyway. We'd risk our lives for nothing!" Paul pleaded.

"What if she's wrong? Distance is different for them! Remember that boy Nico and his shadow travel? And if monsters have crossed the borders, mortals might be able to, too! Please, Paul, I have to do this."

Silence at the kitchen table. But in my mind I was shouting, _No, Mom, no!_

Of course, she couldn't hear me.

"We need weapons," Paul said eventually, and I saw my mum's face light up.

"Taken care of. Professor Chase sent us a pair of swords and daggers made from Celestial bronze for Christmas." Then, after a pause, she added, "But Paul, this isn't your fight. I don't expect you to—"

"If you make it yours, it's mine as well," Paul smiled. "Get the weapons and anything else you think could be helpful. We'll leave in five minutes."

_DAMN!_ I couldn't believe it. Why were they going to Camp Half-Blood? When had Paul met Reyna? I didn't need more people to worry about.

The truth was, I was terrified. Apart from Annabeth, my mom was the most important person in my life. Yes, we were living in different worlds, but she was still my mother! If anything happened to her… I couldn't finish the thought.

The scene shifted again. In quick succession, I found myself in Rachel's cave in Camp Half-Blood, then in one of the busy streets of New Rome and even in the throne room of Hades. The pictures changed so quickly that I got dizzy, and after a while I couldn't even differentiate between Cabin 3 and the aquarium in Atlanta.

Suddenly, the vortex of images stopped, and I was once more face-to-face with Alcyoneus. He had been scary in Alaska when I had defeated him with Hazel and Frank. But looking at him now, he'd changed for the worse.

He was as tall as always, but now he wore a massive black battle armor worthy of a knight of the Middle Ages. Well, with the slight difference that dozens and dozens of huge precious gems decorated his upper body. But not even the rubies that clashed with his fiery red hair sparkled as much as his eyes. _Bad choice of words_. His eyes didn't 'sparkle', they glimmered and glittered with malice and pure evil. Ephialtes had been bad, but Alcyoneus looked as if there was no bad deed he was unwilling to commit. I shuddered.

Before him stood Nico, still in his battle armor, similar to the gear he had worn in the Battle of Manhattan. But compared to Enceladus, with his fifty-foot height, he looked tiny. I screamed in my mind as Alcyoneus brought down his iron staff full force. But he missed. Or rather, his target had vanished. Had Nico shadow travelled using only his own faint afternoon shade?

"ARGH!" Alcyoneus roared as blood gushed out of a wound right above his heart. A black arrow had pierced through a chunk of the armor and deep into his flesh. Suddenly, I saw Nico again. He jumped high behind the giant's back and rammed his sword in the small, unprotected part between shin and knee armor.

"Stop it!" Alcyoneus howled. "This is not_ your_ war, Cupid!"

I didn't see the god, but that didn't really mean anything. His presence would explain the black arrow at least. Nico had always been an excellent swordsman, but he was only mediocre with a bow.

As Alcyoneus was trying to strike nothing in particular—or that was what it looked like—Nico rose up in the air behind the giant. Like, _whoa._ Had he discovered another special skill?

No—as I concentrated hard, I could make out the shape of a man in the wind around him. Curly hair, strong arms... His form was changing so quickly that I couldn't make out more.

The wind spirit let Nico go right beside Alcyoneus' head, and with a scream he plunged his Stygian blade into the giant's neck. The wound would have surely severed a human head, but it didn't cut the giant deeply.

"I have no interest in your disgusting demigod champion. Take him away, and he won't be hurt when Gaia rises," Alcyoneus growled and took a step to the side.

_As if. _

Instead of answering, Cupid shot another black arrow out of nowhere and hit the giant above the heart, right next to the spot where one arrow was already lodged.

"ARGH!" Alcyoneus howled in pain. "Gaia will crush your very essence! Our new world won't need love."

He tried to rip out the arrows, but he only managed to break off the shafts. The black tips stuck in his chest.

Just then, Nico—with a little help from the wind spirit—aimed for the giant's hip, where his armor had several large holes._ Come on, Nico!_ I encouraged him in my head. But he only scraped the surface as the giant took a hasty step backwards.

Then Alcyoneus brought down his iron staff. Hard. I couldn't breathe as Nico stumbled as he dodged it. I remembered Thanatos' condition—both of us had to survive if we wanted to get Annabeth back. I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. _Shadow travel away!_ I thought feverishly as Alcyoneus raised his arm to strike again. But Nico just stood there.

Suddenly, the air before Nico flickered, and the shape of Cupid appeared. Or Eros, whatever. As he deflected the iron staff with his quiver which somehow doubled as a shield I saw that his eyes were no longer bright red, but so dark that they almost seemed black. In the meantime, Nico had moved several steps to the side and was ramming his sword in the giant's heel.

"You can't defeat us!" Alcyoneus shouted in pain and anger. "Gaia will be here soon!"

I knew that. I knew my friends were running out of time, and I could do nothing to help them! As if to feed my sense of helplessness, the scene shifted again and I saw Porphyrion, bane of Zeus.

Calypso, Leo, and Persephone were the only ones left standing. Persephone made the giant stumble again and again as flowers grew between his feet. Calypso was murmuring spells, and Leo shot Greek fire at him. They all looked so tired it was a miracle that they were still standing at all. Several feet out of the giant's reach, Frank lay breathing heavily. Next to him Piper, bleeding from a wound on her neck, fed him tiny drops of nectar.

"Take that!" Leo shouted with far less confidence than I was used to as he released the insect-like mini-robots he had used before. Porphyrion just swatted them away like flies and instead raised his enormous foot to trample Leo to death. Leo sprinted out of its way but scraped his knees in the process.

Persephone used the distraction to boost one of her flesh-eating plants, which promptly snapped at Porphyrion's thigh. Though it looked like a daisy in comparison to his bulk, it managed to sink its teeth deep into the uncovered flesh. Come to think of it, there wasn't much left of Porphyrion's armor. His chest plate seemed to have melted away and huge chunks of it were missing everywhere. I could detect thorns in his skin. That was surely Persephone's doing. I made a mental note to never, _ever _get on her bad side.

"DIE, Olympian scum!" Porphyrion roared as he picked up a rock from below and tossed it at Calypso. She jumped out of its way and the rocky projectile missed. But only. Just. So.

As Porphyrion picked up another rock, a chunk of armor reflected the sunlight into my eyes, blinding me for a moment.

The sun had sunk awfully low and was now coming dangerously close to the horizon. How long had I been sleeping already? It was always hard to tell, even more so if a certain earth goddess had control over your consciousness. What would happen if the sun set before we defeated the giants? Would we be able to prevent the end of the world, if we defeated the giants at all? The prophecy had done nothing to explain that! For all I knew, my friends would die killing the giants, and we would still be doomed. I suddenly felt utterly hopeless and helpless.

Then again, Annabeth had said several times that we needed to defeat the giants if we wanted to lull Gaia back to sleep. I hadn't asked why, because Annabeth was usually right and it had made sense at the time…

The scene shifted and a new series of images flashed before my mind: Mom and Paul running down the stairs of our apartment. Grover fighting a wild wolf somewhere. The hunters of Artemis sitting around a fire, looking angry and confused. Porphyrion knocking out Piper with a lightning bolt. Gaia slowly advancing towards the acropolis. The sun sinking lower and lower as if someone had pushed the fast-forward button of a godly remote control. Then the images stopped spinning, and I was once more a silent observer of the battle against Alcyoneus.

Alcyoneus looked even worse than Porphyrion had, even though the fight against him had gone on for a far shorter time. For each major muscle group there was at least one black arrow in his flesh. He was bleeding oil from several wounds.

Cupid, Nico, and the storm spirit must have worked really well together. Though Nico was breathing heavily, he looked only a little tired. As another arrow pierced the giant's skin right under his rib cage, Nico rammed his sword down the small of the giant's back.

"Force him back," I heard the wind spirit whisper to Nico. "Do it now."

Nico nodded, and the earth began to shake under his feet. And then, with a speed I'd have thought impossible, a rift opened up under the giant's feet. As Alcyoneus stumbled, Cupid sighted down a final arrow and shot it right through the giant's forehead.

_BOOM!_

Instead of crumbling to dust, Alcyoneus exploded into sparkly stones, oil and...were those _truffles?_ Anyway, Nico concentrated and shook up the earth once more, effectively covering all of the giant's remains under a layer of soot. And then he was gone.

"Well done," said Cupid as he shook his wings to dislodge the hot dust of Athens.

"Is he really gone then or will he reform?" Nico asked, out of breath.

Cupid raised an eyebrow as he answered. "He will reform eventually, yes. But not anytime soon. My battle arrows are laced with poison, courtesy of my stepfather. They should have absorbed enough of his energy. Go easy on the nectar, and we'll help Persephone with Porphyrion. There's only an hour and a half left before sunset."

Again the scene blurred, and different images started flashing before my eyes. Why didn't I just wake up? _Stop these visions!_ But no. I saw darkness. Nothing specific, just darkness and the sound of feet on soil and rocks. The scene changed before I could recognize anything.

Calypso's island. I saw her house, her garden, now overgrown. Waves were lapping at the shore with a force I had never witnessed during my short visit. The ground was shaking, and pottery and glassware lay broken on the ground.

Next, I followed grain spirits, karpoi, along their path of destruction. They had freshly emerged and were attacking the strawberry fields of Camp Half-Blood. They ripped out the plants' roots and trampled the fruit. _What a waste,_ I thought, because really, those strawberries had been perfectly fine. But then with a loud _kaboom_ several land mines exploded, vaporizing the karpoi not one foot into the field. The remaining spirits continued tearing out more strawberry plants out of their soil and several more were blown up in the process. They really weren't very smart. In the distance I could see Romans and Greeks running around. Reyna, Nemesis, and Clarisse were still fighting Enceladus. I didn't see Chiron, but I hoped that he had just gone to polish his hooves or get more arrows or something.

Suddenly, Rachel appeared in my field of vision. She looked different in her weird mix of Greek robe, battle armor, and paintbrushes for weapons. She was also carrying a small silver dagger that looked oddly out of place. All in all, she looked exhausted but determined and not injured at all.

"That's because I've been hiding in my cave," she said, looking me straight in the eye.

She could see me and hear my thoughts?

"Of course, Percy," she scoffed. "I'm not just any oracle, you know. But that's not the point."

She ducked as an arrow came flying her way.

"Percy, I need to tell you something. It's important, so listen up. There's a possibility we won't defeat Enceladus before your sunset, which means we probably won't get enough Romans to support the gift of the Athena Parthenos either. But you need their help to get Gaia back to sleep!"

_Sounds like bad news; but I'm too far away to help, you know, _I directed the thought at Rachel.

"Okay, let me rephrase that. You need to buy us as much time as you can. Even a little might be enough. Whatever you can think of, Percy," she insisted.

Buy time. Okay. I nodded.

_But what about Porphyrion?_ I asked in my mind.

At that, Rachel smiled wickedly. "Pity the giant that goes against the Eros-Nico di Angelo team. Don't worry about him."

Just then another spear came flying her way, barely missing her.

"Gotta go. Stay strong!" Rachel said, and just like that my dream changed form again.


	18. Chapter 18: Percy

**Chapter 18: Percy**

Finally, _finally,_ this time it felt like I was struggling back to consciousness.

Everything reeked of wet soil and the faint iron tang of blood. In the distance, I could hear the sounds of ongoing battle—metal striking metal, exhausted grunts, and yelled curses. I blinked twice, and slowly the shapes around me blurred into focus. I was floating five feet in the air, bound next to Jason, who was still unconscious. In front of us, Gaia walked slowly through the last rays of the evening sun–and how had so much time passed already? Her ponytail swayed from side to side, and her armor seemed to glow red.

To my left, a mean-looking but tiny Cyclops accompanied us. He was only about five feet tall, which meant he was either a baby or dwarf Cyclops.

_It's not Tyson,_ I reminded myself. _Not all Cyclops were good. _

The dwarf Cyclops carried a long iron staff and a rusty iron club strapped to his side. His hair was braided in pigtails, and his light leather armor was sprinkled with a mix of stains of old and fresh blood. He stank of rotten burgers and mud puddles. _Urgh!_

Apart from that, there seemed to be no other monsters. And wasn't that a bit odd? I mean, we _were_ talking about Ms. I-Am-the-World. She hadn't brought her entourage to fawn over her? Either her followers were hiding in the shadows (possible, I had always been bad at detecting those things) or she was still too weak to summon them. Personally, I was rooting for the last option.

Suddenly, the clamor in the not-so far distance ceased. I could see the Aeropag, the hill on which I knew my friends where fighting. Had they defeated Porphyrion, or had Porphyrion killed them?

"Mistress," the Cyclops to my left snarled angrily.

"I know," she interrupted him. "But it doesn't matter. You will do the honors, and I will reward you."

So they HAD defeated Porphyrion! I forced myself not to grin.

"You know what you must do?" Gaia asked the Cyclops.

"Yes, mistress."

"Then we will succeed. Now, hold on tight. We'll take the speed lane," Gaia said, and though I couldn't see her face, I imagined her smiling cruelly.

It immediately became clear what she meant by 'speed lane'. It was as if the ground itself was moving us up on the hill. Not just as if, either. The ground itself, in a big wave of soil, carried us upwards while Gaia and the Cyclops leaned into the movement. They resembled an odd pair of surfers who wore armor instead of swimsuits and rode a wave of dirt.

It took us all of thirty seconds to reach the top of the Aeropag. If our situation hadn't been quite so depressing, I would have laughed at the irony—here we were, the sons of Jupiter and Poseidon, praetors of the Roman legion and the so-called greatest heroes of our time, bound at the mercy of Gaia. At least the others looked mostly ready to fight.

They had expected us and were forming a half circle in the middle of the open space before the ruins. Frank and Piper were standing, clutching their weapons and staring grimly at Gaia and the Cyclops. Calypso was muttering a spell under her breath, holding Leo's hand; he looked ready to murder. Behind them stood Persephone, beautiful but battered, and Cupid, his face inscrutable but with an air of burning anger that made me shiver.

"You've come to welcome me. Lovely!" Gaia exclaimed with false sweetness.

"But such a small contingent! Where are Zeus and his minions trying to stop me, hm? Oh, YOU want to stop me?" She asked, mock-incredulously, and laughed.

She had a nice laugh that reminded me of Annabeth. I hated it.

"We _will_ stop you!" Frank yelled and shot a supersonic arrow at her before anyone could react.

Gaia just smiled, and the arrow dropped to the ground.

"You heroes are so adorable. You honestly think you can stop me. Are you SERIOUS?" she snarled.

Suddenly, the ground trembled and the air sizzled with electricity. Not like an earthquake or a storm. More in an impending doom and oh-gods-we're-all-gonna-die kind of way.

"I could stop the WORLD from spinning. I could snuff out the lives of every living BEING! FEEL AN OUNCE OF MY POWER!" Gaia yelled.

Her voice had risen tenfold in volume. I was surprised I wasn't deaf already.

Then she went quite and the earth topped trembling. Actually, _everything_ was suspiciously quite.

_Oh._

Green tree roots or something like that had sprung out around the others. Like giant ropes they were slinging around their legs, arms and mouths, rendering even the gods unable to move and effectively mute. I saw Leo trying to set fire on the roots, but they seemed to just absorb the flames.

Gaia smiled and took a couple of steps forward, walking down the line of bound gods and heroes.

"Sweet Persephone, child," Gaia cooed and pinched the goddess's cheek hard. "How I always detested your powers. But I won't need them once I've risen, anyway, so I won't hold them against you."

"And you, Eros. I am so disappointed in you," she said, like a strict mother seeing a bad grade. "But I always thought love was overrated anyway."

She turned back and, with a swish of her hand, ended the levitation charm or whatever it had been that had kept Jason and me in the air. _Double thump._ I cried out in pain as I hit the ground, face first.

Another swipe of her hand, and Jason regained consciousness.

"So!" Gaia exclaimed gleefully. "As we're all awake now, we can start with the reawakening of my true powers. Cyclops?"

"My name is Rioth, mistress," the Cyclops grumbled, but came forward nonetheless.

He used his iron staff to draw bold lines in the ground all around Gaia. It looked like a very complicated symbol. Annabeth would have probably been able to explain it to me, but I had never seen it before. It was obvious even to me, though, that he was invoking some kind of ancient spell. I could feel the ground trembling, and Jason was unconsciously emitting tiny sparks of electricity beside me. Piper had mentioned once that he did that when he was nervous.

The Cyclops finished his drawing just as the sun set behind the horizon and the streetlights and illuminations of the ruins flickered to life. He mumbled something in a mix of ancient Greek and something else and the drawing flared to life, glowing an ominous green.

"It is done, mistress," Rioth announced.

"Finally," Gaia scoffed. "Then let us now proceed. Blood spilt of two demigods will awaken my true powers. But I need a male and a female demigod. Not just two males. So..."

"Why not two males?" I interrupted her. I think she had forgotten that Jason and I were not yet gagged because her head jerked to the side.

"Not that I owe you an explanation, but the reason is always balance. That's why you are attracted to the daughter of Athena. She's so smart she balances out your stupidity," she delivered the insult.

But I didn't let it get to me. I needed to win time, so letting her do a lot of talking was good.

"Then take Jason, a Roman, and Piper, a Greek. Balance!" I echoed her words.

"Not so noble now that we're talking about your life, are you, Perseus Jackson? But don't worry; I'll kill you all eventually. But I think I will start with you, dear son of Poseidon. Cyclops, bring him in the circle."

"Gladly, mistress," he said, and with an evil smirk he crouched down between Jason and me.

His calloused hands touched my calves and upper body. It was disgusting. I flexed my body; ready to attack once the ropes had been untied. Unfortunately, the Cyclops was not quite as stupid as he looked. Before untying the last rope he pressed the edge of a knife against my throat right above my jugular. _So much for escaping._

"Hold still or I'll have to—" the Cyclops said but couldn't finish his sentence as he spontaneously combusted into monster dust.

I looked through the fog. There was Jason, barely conscious but smiling slightly. He had somehow managed to get rid of his ropes and had rammed an Imperial gold dagger into the Cyclops' back. There was a hole in the ground next to him. That could only mean—

"Do you have to make this so difficult?" Gaia sighed, exasperated.

And, with a flick of her wrists, two new sets of tree roots appeared, binding Jason and Hazel, who was yanked bodily out of her hidey-hole.

"Even half-dead you still annoy me, son of Jupiter. Maybe I should use your blood after all," Gaia said angrily.

Jason couldn't answer; the tip of one root had effectively gagged him.

"And you, Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto. So nice of you to join us. Yes, your blood will do nicely."

"Don't you want her to summon some jewels for you first?" I asked.

It was a stupid question, but I was getting nervous. This was starting to look really, really bad for us and there was no help nearby. Rachel had told me to stall for time. So that's what I would try to do.

"What would I need jewels for?" Gaia sniffed haughtily. "The greatest jewelry mankind can wear is the mud on their cheeks."

"But as a gift from her. Queens get gifts all the time from their people!"

Even to my own ears, my argument was pathetic. Why was I the only one not gagged?

"Mhm..." Gaia seemed to consider it momentarily. "No."

_Damn._

"Now, all of you listen closely. I need a new servant. I will give one of you the chance to live in my new golden era. Join me and sacrifice two demigods for me and you will live. The others will be exterminated. Anyone...?"

No one said anything, obviously.

"They're gagged. How do you expect them to answer?" I asked.

Gaia glared at me. "No need to get cheeky, young hero. But very well."

She raised her hand as if to unbind them, but I interrupted her. "Ask them one by one! It's safer that way."

_Okay, maybe that was a mistake,_ I thought. But the truth was that no one of us was any threat to Gaia. Even combined we stood absolutely no chance. So I just followed Rachel's order: stalling for time and as much time as possible.

Gaia scowled at me. "I decided years ago that your blood would reawaken my powers. If you're trying to get into my good graces to be spared later, it is not working."

But still, she followed my suggestion and loosened the roots around Frank's head.

"Frank Zhang, child of Mars. Shapeshifter. You might actually be useful to me. Do you pledge your loyalty to me, to do my bidding, to kill Percy Jackson and Hazel Levesque and help me regain my powers?"

"Never." Frank stared at her, and I thought I could really see the hate in his eyes.

"Pity," Gaia said, and with a flick of her finger hit a root hard against his cheek, leaving an angry red trail behind.

"Piper McLean, Aphrodite's spawn," Gaia continued. "While your powers are quite ridiculous, you are closer related to me than all of the others. And while your mother has sided with the Olympians, I give you the choice to follow me instead."

Piper's face held a neutral expression as Gaia was speaking but instead of answering she just said, "Go to sleep."

Gaia scoffed. "My roots absorb your magic; your charmspeak will not work on me. But I will take that as a 'no.' "

Her _roots?_ The looped tendrils around my friends and the gods were her roots? Suddenly an imagine appeared in my mind, replacing Gaia's head with Ursula's, the villain of 'The Little Mermaid,' one of my favorite movies of all time. The thought was incredibly disturbing.

Gaia moved on. "Leo Valdez, yes. Son of Hephaestus and the sweet Esperanza. I hope you don't hold it against me, but I did what was necessary at that time. You are a tinkerer and good with fire. It could work."

Suddenly, the roots around Leo vanished, and he stumbled forward.

"I could make you great, Leo Valdez," Gaia said, pinning him with her gaze. "Always the seventh wheel, barely acknowledged by your father, belittled by those you call 'friends.' Join me, and you will have the power you deserve and servants to look up to you."

Leo bowed, and for a moment I stopped breathing.

Did he really think we thought so little of him? Without Leo we would have had no chance at even leaving camp in the first place!

"No, Leo, DON'T!" I shouted, but he ignored me.

In one fluid motion, he reached into his tool belt and threw a dozen insectoid robots at Gaia.

"Those won't work on me EITHER!" Gaia shouted, crushing two of them with her foot. Another flick of her hand, and Leo was bound and gagged again.

Suddenly, the drawing at Gaia's feet flickered out—a couple of the robots had damaged the drawn lines!

"ARGHHHHH!" Gaia screamed unnaturally high. "Now I have to do the whole thing again, you FOOLS!"

She took a deep breath, and I had a feeling that something really bad was about to happen.

"You will all pay for this," she said, clenching her hands into fists and bumping them against each other.

The effect was immediate—the roots around all of my friends loosened up, only to grow one inch-thorns and constrict again forcefully. They pierced their skin in a hundred places, probably injecting poison or something equally horrid. Piper screamed. Leo screamed. Hazel screamed. Calypso screamed. Even Frank screamed. It was just too much. I hated, hated, HATED to see them like this. And Gaia just stood before me calmly.

"I like your screams," she said. "And the blood running down your limbs. It suits you demigods."

I wanted nothing more than to strangle her with my bare hands.

"I think I will do that again later, just for fun. But first, I have to redo this drawing," Gaia said.

With a flick of her hand, she conjured a wooden staff and set to work. It took her longer to draw the lines than the Cyclops, but not long enough. Once more, the drawing glowed greenly.

"So–" Gaia began to speak but she was interrupted by a strong gust of wind.

_Whoosh_ it went right behind her, and the tip of a black, Stygian sword became visible, blurring the lines on the ground and putting the glow out. _Nico,_ I thought. _Great timing!_

"NOT AGAIN!" Gaia roared, summoning new roots and flinging them around, trying to catch the culprit. She missed.

"Show yourself!" she demanded, but no one answered. More angry flailing ensued.

Persephone on the side leaned towards Cupid as much as the thorny roots allowed her to.

"Did you give him your blessing?" she whispered.

Cupid rolled his eyes at her but nodded. "I'm sure I will regret it," he added.

Next to Persephone, Calypso tried to turn her head towards Leo.

"Leo, just in case, we won't make it—"

"Son of Hades!" Gaia roared. "Show yourself, or I will kill your sister!" She flicked her right hand and wrapped one of her roots closely around Hazel's throat.

I could see one of its thorns digging into the skin above her carotid artery, not quite breaking the skin.

Suddenly, the air several yards behind the row of bound hostages flickered, and Nico appeared.

"Wasn't that your plan all along?" Nico shouted and vanished again.

I was really, really glad to see him. Maybe he had some ideas to slow Gaia down. A game of cat-and-mouse could win us a couple of minutes, if we were lucky. On the other hand, I needed him to survive to get Annabeth out of limbo later.

"Are you a coward, son of Hades?" Gaia scoffed, and, as if to prove her wrong, Nico appeared to our left.

"Enceladus has been defeated. Can't you feel it?" He laughed and vanished again before one of Gaia's roots could strike him.

Was that the truth? If so, we might be only seconds away from swaying the Romans, healing the split personalities! This could be the moment we had been waiting for!

But then again…it _was_ Nico. Maybe he was just bluffing. I had always been bad at reading his poker face.

"I do not depend on my sons!" Gaia snarled and conjured up even more roots.

She wasn't denying it; that was good news! But now about twenty small and big roots were swaying around Gaia, just waiting to catch their prey.

Nico appeared and disappeared a couple more times: to the left, to the right, right in front of me. Then he materialized again between Persephone and Cupid.

Nico smiled. And not in a nice, friendly kind of a way, but in the I'm-bringing-you-death-and-I-enjoy-it kind of way.

"I'm just the harbinger, Gaia. Now say 'hi'."


	19. Chapter 19: Nico

**Chapter 19: Nico**

It was a good thing Persephone had given me a mental heads-up, or else I would've screamed like a little kid.

In an earth-shattering explosion of nothing, Hera appeared next to me. She truly looked every bit the Queen of Olympus, wearing a golden Grecian tiara and a golden toga along with Juno's trademark goat's skin. Two more explosions shook the ground, and Somnus, god of sleep, and Aphrodite, my definitely not-favorite goddess, appeared.

"You upstart!" Gaia hissed angrily, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder. "You've come too late. Your reign is over!"

But Hera did not react. Instead, she nodded at Somnus and Aphrodite.

"Sleep, great Mother Earth," Somnus murmured, fixing his eyes on Gaia.

His voice was just as soothing as my mother's when she had sung Bianca and I lullabies so many years ago. I felt truly relaxed and maybe just a short nap... But no! Aphrodite's voice helped me snap out of it.

"Sleeping sounds good. I know that all this work has been tiresome. You deserve some rest. You can go on later. You just need a quick rest," the goddess cooed.

Gaia tried to fight against their words, her roots thrashing as she blinked repeatedly.

"Not so fast..." she spat and tried to hit Hera with one of her thorny roots but missed as Hera easily sidestepped the attack.

"Sleep, now. Sleep," Somnus continued to whisper. His eyes were now closed and he looked so restful, so peaceful. He nearly had me again, but I managed to resist the temptation. Hazel and Jason on his other side looked drowsy, and Leo and Calypso had already fallen asleep. Frank snored slightly and Percy… Percy (who was still bound) drooled in his sleep. Only Piper seemed half-awake, excluding the gods, who had somehow managed to cover their ears with flower petals.

"Good night, great earth mother," Aphrodite whispered.

Gaia swayed and blinked. And blinked again. Then her eyes stayed closed.

With a _thump_, Gaia fell back, and the ground swallowed her whole. Then, nothing. Only Frank's soft snoring disturbed the silence.

_Let her have a long and peaceful rest, _I prayed and looked around. Calypso started awake, staring in confusion at the spot where Gaia had stood only moments before. She called Leo's name, and he woke up with a jolt. Hazel did the same with Frank, and even Percy slowly squinted his eyes.

"Vanish," Hera loudly commanded the roots around Persephone and the others. "The Queen of Olympus demands it!"

With a small _poof_ the roots turned into brown dust and collapsed around them. Hazel stumbled a bit, but Frank steadied her before she could fall. Calypso shook the dirt from her shirt, then loudly chanted a charm, healing everyone's wounds, including Persephone's and Cupid's, who nodded regally in thanks.

"Sick move!" Leo said beside her, then threw his arms around her and kissed her right on the lips. _Urgh_. There were kids around! _Really, there's no need for such a display of public affection–, _I ranted in my head, thinking of Hazel, but she interrupted me.

"Thank you, Frank," she said quietly, but still loud enough for all of us to hear, and then she kissed him. At least she only kissed him on the cheek, thank the gods. But still. Frank reddened visibly.

"I've been SO WORRIED!" Piper suddenly shrieked at Jason. "You were just gone! You could have died! And then you came back and nearly died again! How dare you, you…you…"

For a moment I thought she would hit him. Instead, she slung her arms around his neck and started sobbing.

Women were always so unpredictable.

"It's okay, we're okay," Jason whispered into her hair and stroked her back.

Happy couples all around. _Fantastic_. I grimaced and was caught by a smirking Cupid.

"My queen?" Cupid addressed Hera and pointed in Percy's direction.

It was hard for me to read her face. A soft wind blew her hair out of her face, and the street lamps illuminated her cheeks. I had always known rationally that Hera was a powerful goddess. Just…the way she stood there. I suddenly felt small, insignificant. Then she slowly raised her hand. For a moment, I thought she would summon a lightning bolt or something and crush us all. She was undoubtedly powerful enough. But then she nodded at Cupid, albeit slight reluctantly.

"Release Percy Jackson," she said unenthusiastically, and the rope around him fell off.

So. There we were.

Gaia lulled back to sleep, the giants back in Tartarus and the seven of the prophecy alive and mostly unscathed; Annabeth would join them shortly. Thanatos had sworn it.

Could it really have been so easy? Easy being a relative term, of course. I had felt Reyna dying as she had tried to sway the undecided in Camp Half-Blood, and many more had given their life in the fight.

Including me.

"Heroes, I am proud of you!" Hera addressed the others. "You have been a great help in bringing my plan to fruition. You will be rewarded. Come forward and state a wish. I will grant it if it is within my power."

Leo stepped forward first and said something about letting Calypso off of her island or something. I only half-listened because Thanatos was forming out of shadows behind Hera, carrying Annabeth. She was pale, but very much breathing and alive. He had kept his oath. I would keep mine.

"Annabeth!" Percy cried out, and as she opened her eyes and smiled at him, tears of joy ran down his cheeks. Thanatos let her down and they ran for each other like long-lost lovers. When they met, they hugged each other so tightly that not even a sheet of paper would have fit between them.

"Well, they seem to be busy," Hera said, but I could see a smile tugging at her lips.

"I have a wish, Queen Juno. Or Hera. I'm confused," Jason admitted, looking puzzled but still stroking Piper's back.

"My personalities have been sealed. I will answer to both names. You, my hero, are the one that has to choose. Do you choose to honor your Roman roots, or will you embrace the Greek spirit within you?"

Jason smiled somewhat sheepishly. "That's what I wanted to wish for, actually. Not having to make a choice. Romans and Greeks, we have so many similarities. I'm sure that we could learn a lot from each other if we got to know each other better. I'm asking for a shortcut between the two camps. Like a portal or a special high-speed connection. It would have to be safe, of course, but yeah, that."

Hera thought for a moment. "That is more Hecate's domain, but I think something can be arranged. However, I will make you, Jason Grace, responsible for leading the negotiations. Terminus will probably be against it."

"I will."

"Good," Hera nodded. "Piper McLean, if you would be so kind. I don't have all day."

Piper blew her nose in a tissue and nodded.

"I want our homes to be whole again. I've seen Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood in my dreams. Camp Jupiter seems to have been less affected, but still. Camp Half-Blood is mostly destroyed! I'm not asking for help with the physical labor, but we need a charm to keep the monsters out now that the Golden Fleece is gone. And we need funds to rebuild."

"You shall have all the drachmas you need. But I will have to talk to Dionysus about the security problem."

"And also–" Piper started, but Hera interrupted her.

"You had your wish, and I am generous enough to comply, am I not?" Hera asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What was it?" Frank asked.

Piper hesitated but said, "Ever since you told me about New Rome, I couldn't stop wondering why we don't have the same in Camp Half-Blood. I wanted to ask if there is a possibility of making our camp more inclusive. Surely there are lots of second- or third-generation demigods who could use our training! I'd like us to build enough housing to make it a New Athens, which could be a harbor for whole generations!"

Piper hesitated but answered: "Since you told me about New Rome I couldn't stop wondering why we don't have the same in Camp Half-Blood. I wanted to ask if there is a possibility to make our camp more inclusive. There are surely lots of second or third generation demigods who could use our training! More space, housing to make it a New Athens, which could be a harbor for whole generations."

"I understand," Frank said. "Queen Juno, though as Roman praetor I gladly welcome my Greek friends, I cannot imagine not having a place to come back to if I so wished. And I want to help as many kids as possible to survive against monster attacks. Please, Queen Juno, this is my wish as well."

"The changes you seek might not be realized in your lifetime, Frank Zhang. Are you sure you do not want to ask for something else?"

Hera looked pointedly at the pouch around Frank's neck, which I knew held the last bit of his firewood.

But Frank shook his head. "This is more important than my life. And I have learned to live with the burden."

"Very well, then. I will talk about it with Dionysus and maybe Athena. Now, Hazel Levesque. I am quite certain I know what you will wish for, but I cannot meddle with Pluto's affairs."

Hazel smiled sadly. "I just wished I could see him once more without fearing I'd be taken back to the Fields of Asphodel."

Hera stayed quiet, so Hazel continued. "I am not as selfless as Frank. That's why I'm asking you to take his firewood stick back. He deserves a happy life without a constant death threat hanging from his neck. Really, was that truly necessary in the first place?"

Cupid chuckled at Hera's sour expression.

"You are cheeky, Hazel Levesque," she said, then sighed. "It served my means, but it is indeed no longer a necessary evil. Begone."

Frank gasped as the pouch around his throat grew lighter with emptiness.

Hera turned to Percy and Annabeth, who were both still holding each other tightly. "I think those two have other things on their mind. In any case, once you're done here, get on your ship and say 'Hail Hera'. It's the secret password that takes you right back to Camp Half-Blood. You will find yourselves in the air space over where my cabin once stood."

"Never would have said that accidentally," Leo muttered to Calypso under his breath.

"Now that that's done, fare thee well. I will get in touch about some of your wishes," Hera said.

And with a double explosion, she vanished along with Somnus.

"Piper, child, I am so proud of you," Aphrodite said and kissed her on the forehead.

"Thanks," she mumbled and went beet red.

Then Aphrodite turned to Cupid. "But you, my son, I would have thought better of you. Really, those wings with _those_ shoes?"

Cupid rolled his eyes. "My shoes are perfectly fine, thanks."

"And look what you've done with poor Nico. That wasn't really nice," she scolded him.

"Love isn't nice. You ought to know that, mother," he replied.

"Well, I never," Aphrodite sniffed, then looked at me. "Poor child. Well, I have to go now. Take care, and let love rule your lives!"

And with a _pop,_ she vanished. As Thanatos walked slowly towards me, Cupid materialized at my side.

"Was it worth it?" he asked, nodding towards Annabeth and Percy, who were still switching between kissing and hugging each other tightly.

Cupid's bloodshot eyes seemed to dare me to say no, but I couldn't.

Instead I nodded. Because it was. It was.

"Good for you then," Thanatos said as he approached us. "Because I still hold you to our deal.

"I am ready," I said.

I had decided against saying my goodbyes. I wasn't sure if I would see them again, and nothing good ever came of farewells.

"Cupid," Thanatos rumbled, laying his hand on my shoulder.

Cupid nodded and vanished in a cloud of white mist.

"Well, then, Nico di Angelo. Let's show the world what the god of death and the Ghost King can do."


End file.
